Memento
by marione25
Summary: At the Christmas after the Dark Lord's defeat, Harry James Potter and Hermione Jean Granger's engagement is put into a devastating halt when she vanishes leaving only a blood trail and a Slytherin scarf. Draco Malfoy is convicted to twenty years at Azkaban and two decades later, a parole is given for a chance to redeem his life and prove the justice he knows he deserve.
1. Chapter 1

_**Author's Notes:**_ _**A slow burn Dramione from my seven part series of various of fanfiction I called "Dark Desires" where the main theme are usually angst and mystery.**_ _**This is a WIP and the setting is post second wizarding war. The main timeline is in the year of 2018, two decades after the Battle of Hogwarts.**_ _**Flashbacks and memories will be written in 'italic' form and are constantly recurring to give readers glimpses and views from the past that which explains the present.**_ _**If interested for other stories here are my other works:**_ _**Through the Son - Dramione/WIP/AngstDramaRomance**_  
 _ **Forbidden Rapture - SSHG/WIP (nearly done)/AngstMystery**_  
 _ **Across the Universe - Hermione Granger/Loki Laufeyson/WIP/HPMarvelCrossover/Angst/Romance**_  
 _ **Beyond the Veil - Dramione/WIP/Mystery**_  
 _ **Hogwarts A Mystery - Drarmione/WIP/Murder Mystery**_  
 _ **Thinking of You - SSHG/Complete/Angst**_  
 _ **Blood Reign - Snape/OC/MurderMystery**_

 _ **Memento**_

 _Memento_

 _noun_  
 _\- an object kept as a reminder or souvenir of a person or event._

At the first Christmas just months after the Dark Lord's defeat, the wizarding world's joyous celebrations diverts into a halt when at the eve of war heroes Harry James Potter and Hermione Jean Granger's engagement party - she vanishes without a trace – at exactly seven days later, by Christmas morning, is presumed dead.

Harry Potter mourns her loss beyond anything he has ever endured and swears that he will never stop until he finds the killer that has left nothing but a blood trail at the cold snow at the night of their engagement.  
And three months into the investigation, a Slytherin scarf is found at the scene of the crime and thus points to the possible murderer who has all means and motive to kill the Mudblood as he always called her.

Draco Malfoy fails to run for his life and is sentenced to years in Azkaban without proper trial that ignites the idea of suicide to Lucius Malfoy in his own Azkaban cell.

The year is 2018 and two decades after his sentence, Draco Malfoy is given a parole for a chance to redeem his life.

All hate and horrors he has not seen beyond the bars of Azkaban are reflected in Harry Potter's eyes as the boy is forced to relieve all the pain all over again at the release of Draco Malfoy.

All Harry Potter wants is justice for what he strongly believes the young Malfoy heir has taken from him and he will stop at nothing to claim justice and restore him back at the godforsaken prison for the truth he claims they both knew.

As the gates opened to signify the resurrection of his freedom, murders begin to happen.

But protecting himself from Harry isn't the call he wants to make.  
He remains steadfast that he is innocent and that he had been jailed for the wrong reasons, that despite their differences and history, he would never lay a hand on Hermione.

With the death of his mother as the final straw that unveils his time at St. Mungo's and places further bias into his cause, Draco fights back to clear his name and evade all of Harry's attempts to bring him back down and prove to the world that despite the name he bears and the crimes of his family, he is not a murderer.

For in search of truth and thirst to prove one's innocence, everything goes haywire that borders into a destructive obsession.

And in the twisted turn of events, Draco Malfoy will discover a horrifying truth that has barred him to gain a better life after the war and its revelation that will cost him everything that he has left and what the whole wizarding world believed to be true.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Author's Notes:**_ _**The story is available at:**_ _**and**_ _**Anyone willing to beta this, just send me a message.**_ _**This is a slowborn WIP Dramione.**_ ___**Opinions are free to be expression just no violent reactions please. Thank you!**_

 **I**

 **The Cottage**

 _"_ _All is never fair in love and war. Isn't it?" his deep voice asked from the shadows._

 _She halted by the doorway, her eyes slightly wide at the object in his hands._

 _"_ _Where did you.. where did you get that?" she slowly asked him mustering the courage to enter the darkened room._

 _He didn't answer her._

 _Her heart was beating fast within the silence between the two of them._

 _His back was turned to her and he remained standing still as if he was thinking how to further go about the situation._

 _"_ _I knew this was coming." he whispered but it looked like he was talking more to himself than towards her. "I knew this was coming. The signs were everywhere. How naïve of me."_

 _"_ _You shouldn't be here." she slowly said making a few steps forward. "Please put that down. We can talk about this."_

 _Her voice barely wavered to show her fear at that moment._

 _She still believed that the good cause could win out of this despite all that has been happening in the past weeks._

 _"_ _Talk about this." he drawled in repetition and she watched him inhale deeply and exhale his stress out. "Now you want to talk about it."_

 _"_ _I told you I wanted to talk about this." she slightly argued with him seeing him from the shadows as he slowly walked away from the window where he had been standing next to the long table. "I didn't want it to lead up to this."_

 _He gave a scoff and a cold restrained laugh._

 _"_ _You didn't want things to lead up to this day." his voice was laced with poison and she knew that she was threading a very thin line at the moment. "But you did let things lead up to this day!"_

 _"_ _I always wanted to talk about it." she told him her tone determined. "I told you time and again but you never listened."_

 _"_ _This makes it my fault now?" he sarcastically told her. "I am amaze at how he had tarnished that brilliant mind of yours. How he manages to play you over his hand time and again-"_

 _"_ _He doesn't play me. I would never allow that." she told him with a tone. "I would never allow anyone to play with me or my feelings."_

 _"_ _And how about my feelings?" he suddenly screamed at her. "How about my feelings?!"_

 _She opened her mouth to argue again but out of the dark shadows, his strong arm had come out of nowhere and had grabbed her by the neck._

 _Out of her surprise, she was unable to defend herself and she was painfully and forcedly pushed back against the wall._

 _She screamed out of shock and pain but his other hand was fast as his sporty reflexes allowed of him._

 _She knew that the pain had caused blood behind her head as she felt the warm drizzle of something from the back of it._

 _She felt dazed and her visions blurred a little._

 _And before she could even scream for help, his other hand was tight with a cloth over her mouth._

 _Her eyes widened as she met his gaze aware of the emerald cloth in her mouth._

 _"_ _Some promise of love." he taunted her retelling her of what she believed the cloth symbolized to be. "Until the end. Isn't it? Isn't that what you had promised?"_

 _He was staring back at her – a mixture of fury and fear evident in his eyes as she looked back at him, begging for her life._

 _Tonight, it was an all or nothing._

 _He was going to lose her forever if he doesn't make up his mind to man up enough to make this decision._

 _She had seen that mad look over his eyes only once before when they were at Hogwarts and never thought she would see it again._

 _He was beyond reason and beyond the borders of sanity._

 _He scared her._

 _"_ _Please." she cried beneath his hard grip over her mouth. "Please don't do this. The war is over. We can all start again. Isn't that what we all wanted?"_

 _"_ _I thought.." he breathed heavily against her skin. "I thought.. you.. you didn't judge me. I thought you believed in me. I thought that-"_

 _"_ _I do." she cried softly against his hand. "I do, I still do.. please. Please don't do this. Please let me go. I need to go back-"_

 _"_ _Go back where?" he suddenly raged at her tightening his grip around her neck. "Back to him? You think this whole – this whole pathetic little event will cover up everything-"_

 _"_ _Please, please don't hurt me-" she begged him tears now in her eyes. "Please don't-"_

 _She suddenly screamed._

 _A hand so heavy came crashing down against her face and she fell back forward the ground tasting blood at the side of her mouth._

 _Before she could even recover, she felt his strong fingers grabbed the ends of her dark tresses and by her hair, he dragged her against the floor towards the end of the room._

 _She tried kicking, screaming and begging him to stop._

 _But he was stronger now._

 _The war had evidently changed him in many ways more than one._

 _If there was anything she knew, it was how the war had changed everyone she knew – physically, emotionally and mentally._

 _And he was nowhere immune to the effects of the war over the rest of them._

 _She tried to scream again but this time, she felt her voice left her as he fisted his hand and with a very precise manner, he punched her straight to her stomach._

 _He watched in silence and breathless form as she fell back towards the ground, clutching her stomach._

 _He raised her hand ready to strike once more at her agonizing form when his eyes caught sight of something that she too felt in her._

 _They both stared as something crimson and glimmering began to drop all the way down to her legs from her nude pink dress._

 _Horror passed his eyes at the realization._

 _Her voice caught in her throat and she looked up at him with fear and now, a mixture of anger._

 _"_ _No, no…." she cried miserably staring over the blood that continue to drip down between her legs. "No, no… my child.. no, my child.."_

 _"_ _You're.." he began, eyes wide at what he had done. "No, it can't be.. you didin't.. "_

 _"_ _My child, no.. please.. please.. no.." she cried unable to hear the evident fear and shock in his voice as he knelt down next to her unable to comprehend what to do next._

 _"_ _This isn't.." he forced himself to say as his mind, despite its confusion, tried to focus and calculate the possibilities of being the child's father. "This is.. it isn't.."_

 _"_ _It's yours." she managed to whisper looking back at him as her soft fingers reached for his arm. "It's yours."_

 _"_ _But.. " he tried to find his voice as he realized that he has done. "But you.. I heard you..I just heard you!"_

 _"_ _I left.. I left him.." she cried as her fingers tightened around his arm. "I left him for you.. for our child."_

 _His eyes burned with tears at what he had done._

 _He felt his chest heavy, consumed grief and anger mixing all throughout the veins of his body._

 _She looked up at him, her eyes filled with emotion and love for him._

 _She was begging him to stop the madness because it obviously had gone very, very far._

 _Perhaps it was out of fear or out of his deep love for her or maybe both that he immediately gathered her in his strong arms and lifted her from the floor._

 _She started screaming in pain that was growing inside her stomach trying to tell herself that everything would soon be better._

 _That he would understand and he would let her be with her life._

 _Everything would have gone well and perhaps back to normal until he stopped carrying her because they both heard that familiar voice._

 _"_ _Hermione?"_

 _He called her name._

 _His eyes went back to Hermione and all the worry and fear in them had quickly vanished and was replaced by the hate that has consumed his heart._

 _He looked back down at her and her eyes focused back at the man carrying her who was just about to save her and her child's life._

 _But he called her again._

 _His voice was as it had always been – gentle and warm towards her._

 _His voice was getting closer and it told her that he had been looking for her and he was nearby._

 _He was going to find them, he was going to find her._

 _Her eyes returned to him and the gleam that passed her eyes made him understand._

 _She opened her mouth to scream again for help but he had had enough already._

 _All the guilt, fear and love in his eyes had completely vanished and was replaced by nothing but anger and madness._

 _Instead of taking her back towards the front door to seek help for her condition, he immediately stirred her and carried her to the back door to the other direction._

 _Despite her pain she struggled, she tried her best to push herself off from his arms and as he reached the back door, the moment he stepped outside the cold slippery snowy ground, she managed to free herself from his grasp by clawing over his face._

 _He screamed in pain and he accidently let her go._

 _They both fell forward but out of her exhaustion and pain, she barely made it far from him._

 _She crawled and cried against the thick blanket of snow around them, clawing her surroundings apart to gain distance from him._

 _But she was weak now and he was fast._

 _She felt his hand back behind her long hair, grabbing every handful of hair he could and pulling it as painfully as he could do so with his strength._

 _The struggle had exhausted a lot of effort from his part because she was willing to exhaust all the little energy she had to escape him despite her condition._

 _She clawed and kick against him and tried to desperately go through the thick snow to keep herself away from him._

 _They were going farther into the back and closer to the woods for which she knew once they enter, she was never going to get out of alive._

 _She deeply regretted leaving her wand behind for just this time._

 _Was she meant to die tonight?_

 _She coughed out the coldness of their surroundings and just as she reached the fence that bordered the cottage to the woods, he had reached her._

 _He grabbed her hair and painfully grabbed her jawline._

 _"_ _Please don't.. please.." she begged him knowing that the boy she loved was gone now. "Please don't kill me.. I'm sorry.. please.. I'm sorry."_

 _How she had ignored all the warning signs around her about their relationship._

 _And how badly it had gone now and how everything realized now is too late._

 _"_ _I have given you everything." he spitefully whispered against her face as he painfully dug his fingers around her face as he held her by the jaw._

 _"_ _Please, don't do this." she begged for her life already knowing how this was going to end up._

 _"_ _Have I not given you everything?! Have I not given you enough?!" he angrily screamed at her face, tears damping her cheeks._

 _She cried and apologized but she knew there was nothing she can do now to stop the inevitable._

 _"_ _I have lied for you, I have abandoned everything that I knew to be right all my life- "_

 _"_ _Please let me go, please-"_

 _"_ _And you repay by slutting yourself around that –"_

 _"_ _No – please, let me go – you're –mistaken –"_

 _"_ _Mistaken?!" he screamed against her face again. "Mistaken? You cheated against me – you- "_

 _"_ _I never cheated on you!" she cried back at him as she fought hard against his grip with the very little energy she had left. "I never lied to you – I never cheated on you – I told you-"_

 _"_ _You told me lies!" he yelled at her ear as he held her tighter and tighter to the point of choking her. "You told me lies! You cheated on me – you would choose a life with him after everything that I could have given you – have I not given you enough? Have I not given you enough-"_

 _"_ _Please-"_

 _"_ _Answer me!" he murderously stared at her shaking her and choking her. "Answer me!"_

 _"_ _Please.. I'm sorry.. I beg you.. please-"_

 _"_ _You put this in that little intelligent mind of yours.." he murderously whispered against her as he slowly took his wand out pointing it directly over her throat. "If I can't have you – no one else in this goddamn world will ever have you."_

 _"_ _No – please-"_

 _"_ _Do you understand?" he screamed at her the wand's edge pointing painfully against the middle of her throat. "Do you understand that you filthy little Mudblood!"_

 _Her pain was beyond her own recognition._

 _Despite and beyond everything that has transpired tonight, perhaps that was the most hurtful thing she had endured and heard from his lips._

 _Her face began to pale at the lack of oxygen and all the blood she had begun to lose from earlier._

 _She had lost her voice and the colour from her eyes had slowly vanished as she began to lose her consciousness._

 _He blinked his anger and tears away and he recognized what he had done._

 _His chest palpitated in panic and fear at the sight of her almost lifeless form in his very arms._

 _"_ _I'm sorry.." he began crying seeing her and quickly loosening his grip around her neck and gently holding her in his arms. "I'm sorry.. I'm sorry…"_

 _He slowly laid her back down the thick snow as he gently pointed the tip of his wand over her forehead to awaken her when he heard his voice._

 _He called her name again but this time with the distant shock and fear in his voice._

 _He cursed spitefully and gently laid her head back down and slowly turned back to his face him._

 _He too had his wand in his wand and ready to duel with him._

 _"_ _What have you done?" he slowly asked him his own eyes slowly being consumed with tears._

 _He crossed the fence and stared at him, his wand in his hand and at her unconscious form._

 _"_ _What have you done?" he repeated but this time his voice was demanding and strong._

 _He looked back at the boy in front of him._

 _How school grudges felt very much like a joke in a distant memory._

 _They stood a few feet apart over her unconscious body._

 _His eyes moved from him, towards her and the bloody trail from her and back at him putting things together._

 _His eyes flashed with fear._

 _"_ _Give her to me." he said gesturing him to move away from her form. "She's not going to be happy with you. She was never going to be happy with you."_

 _"_ _She left you." he whispered back holding his wand tightly in his hand. "She had left you for me."_

 _"_ _No." he told her as his eyes passed at the blood trail from her body and back at him with horror in his eyes. "She left me for your child."_

 _He stopped._

 _The verification came from his eyes and the horror of what he has done became obvious from his._

 _He stared back at her bloody form and then back up at the boy he hated all his damned life._

 _Their eyes met in an agreement of life and death._

 _The quick ones at dueling, at the art of the wands, always won._

 _One of them was bound to walk away tonight and one bound to lose everything._

 _For one of them was trained to become a murderer and one was taught to save lives._

 _There was a revulsion of hatred from both their eyes and at the very exact moment, they both drew their wands up, opened their mouths as hands moved in accordance of the expelled magic._

 _Lights erupted from their wands at the executed spells from either end._

 _And then there was darkness._


	3. Chapter 3

_**Author's Notes:**_ _**Chapter is here!**_ _**Anyone willing to help BETA this one?**_ _**It's been terribly raining for three long days now in my country.**_  
 _ **So there is zero work for me (i'm a musician) so my classes are cancelled since there's no way of getting out but don't worry cause i live at a highrise, so there's no flood at my end though the heavy rains are really alarming.**_ _**Anyway.**_  
 _ **That's the reason I am able to write a few chapters here and there for all my fics.**_ _**Two other fics will be updated tomorrow, hopefully.**_ _**Hope all is well at your end.**_ _**Almost midnight at east coast, at my end.**_ _**Hope all is well at yours.**_ _**Lots of love**_  
 _ **xx**_

 **I**

 _"Are we dancing?" she giggled at him with a look about her face_

 _He blinked and swallowed hard and he quickly looked away, blushing._

 _"Oh, seriously." Hermione said rolling her eyes as she grabbed Harry's hand into hers and began taking them back into the dance floor._

 _The music had changed again into a slow music._

 _She had danced with Viktor Krum, her date and she had enjoyed her time with the boy._

 _The Bulgarian could barely take his eyes from her._

 _But she knew that she had to let him dance with the other girls who were absolutely dying to dance with the Quidditch star player._

 _And then she'd have a chance to dance with her friends._

 _She had danced with Neville who had asked her for one dance days before the ball itself; Ron was a little grumpy tonight but she had danced with him as well and even one Ravenclaw was given a chance to dance with her._

 _She was enjoying the night as far as she could tell and everyone were in good spirits._

 _Even the teachers were enjoying themselves._

 _And if she'd be tad bit honest, she felt that Draco's eyes had wandered to her direction more than once and seemingly wanted to dance with her._

 _Ofcourse that was nowhere near possible._

 _Not that she hated the idea of it._

 _The boy was best groomed in the room than she can compare to anyone else and he was handsome already if he wasn't a bit of a prat and a ferret._

 _But a dance with him tonight?_

 _No, that will totally ruin the social norms within the school and will totally cause chaos._

 _Harry looked too beautiful tonight as well to get a detention if he finds a reason to punch the young Malfoy heir._

 _"What's the matter?" Hermione asked him as he placed his arms around her waist with reluctance._

 _He was obviously flustered as he danced with her._

 _She barely understood why – they were bestfriends for as far as she could remember._

 _Unless Harry felt differently._

 _Did he?_

 _She looked back at him with concern in her eyes._

 _"Harry." Hermione called him out of his reverie one more. "Is everything alright?"_

 _His emerald eyes took one look at her and his face reddened._

 _"You're so beautiful tonight, Hermione." Harry said unable to stop the words from his mouth._

 _"Oh." Hermione managed as her head momentarily lagged at what he had said. "Thanks.."_

 _"I mean, you've always been beautiful.. it's just…" he began to stutter as he searched for the right words. "What I'm trying to say-"_

 _"I understand what you're trying to say." Hermione giggled back at him. "Everyone looks good tonight, don't you think? Even Cho got herself a really good dress."_

 _She nodded towards the other side of the room where Cho and Cedric were dancing and had been dancing tirelessly the whole night._

 _He had asked her to the ball and she said that she was already going with Cedric._

 _There was a little bit of heartbreak on that until he saw Hermione the other day holding out a sketch of two possible dresses._

 _She had told only him that her parents were sending her two kinds of dresses and she showed him both sketches on which he thought would look good on her._

 _Ofcourse he didn't know what would fit a girl's body perfectly well but using his imagination, he told her that she would look good on both dresses and that it's up to her to pick a colour that she was tad bit happier into wearing._

 _She thanked him for his honest opinion._

 _And she wore the dress from the sketch from which she felt Harry had stared longer than the other days before._

 _"Well, I had a good stylist." Hermione said as she placed her arms around his neck and moved them around the dance floor with gentle steps as Harry didn't seem to know where they were going and what they were doing anyway._

 _"Stylist?" Harry asked her._

 _"You picked my dress." Hermione said, blushing. "Sort of."_

 _He smiled back at her realizing that what she was wearing was the dress he thought would fit her better or would reflect better on her skin._

 _He stared around them and how happy everyone seemed to be and for that moment when he looked back at her smiling face enjoying the moment, he forgot about the upcoming task._

 _He had been dreading the next task and had been dreading everything else about the TriWizard tournament._

 _But tonight, he found himself enjoying in her arms._

 _He smiled back and danced around the room, holding her closer as he placed his hands a little tighter around her waist._

 _She smiled at the gesture and she moved her face to his ear and attempted to whisper something but she had been giggling and all he felt was the soft breath of air from her._

 _He laughed and giggled as well and shook her head telling her that he didn't hear nor understand what she was trying to tell him._

 _They danced around in a bit of gentle circle as they swayed in the slow music getting nearer and then passing Fleur by who was dancing with someone they had to stare with a double take._

 _"Is that?" Hermione asked Harry as her eyes moved at Fleur and the man she was dancing with at the moment._

 _"Yes, I think so." Harry answered as the lights move and reflected around Fleur and who was dancing in Bill Weasley's arms._

 _"Are you –" Hermione asked curiosity getting the better of her as she smiled at their direction. "- you don't think – are they?"_

 _"Who cares?" Harry smiled back at her as Bill's face turned to them and for a moment he caught Harry's eyes and he nodded at him with a broad smile._

 _Fleur's back gently turned to see who he was nodding at and realized it was Harry and Hermione._

 _She gave them a curt not and the briefest of smile._

 _Ever since he had saved her sister's life, she had been a little friendly than he deemed of her._

 _Harry and Hermione stared back at one another and started to giggle together as they danced._

 _He clasped his hands closer around her waist and she looked up at him with question in her eyes._

 _"I'm sorry." Harry quickly said and was to ease his hold of her when Hermione moved herself closer to him to tell him that she didn't want him any inch farther from her._

 _He moved closer to her then, his face a few inches apart from hers._

 _He could clearly see the twinkle of happiness in her eyes that he had not seen for days now._

 _She had been terribly worried of him since his name had been taken out from the Goblet of Fire._

 _And she had been damn worried about the tasks at hand that she was sacrificing her study hours to research whatever it is that they can get from the books that can help him in the tournament._

 _Bloody fuck to whoever had placed his name at the Goblet of Fire and how that person ensured that he was going to go through the tasks._

 _That person obviously wanted him dead if he was to be asked his personal opinion about it._

 _"I have thought." Harry suddenly said. "An opinion rather."_

 _"An opinion?" Hermione repeated with a smile and a raised brow. "Let me hear it."_

 _"Malfoy seems to want a dance with you tonight." Harry whispered in her ear as they glided and passed the side of the room where several teachers and students were just standing or talking with drinks in their hands._

 _Hermione scoffed at him to ignore the comment but as they turned in their dance, she peaked the briefest of glance towards Draco Malfoy._

 _He stood next to Snape who was talking to an agitated looking Karkaroff._

 _Draco had a drink in his hand and although he had danced only once tonight with Pansy Parkinson, he looked very tired and very bored._

 _But why was he not yet retiring to the Slytherin dormitory?_

 _Hermione's curiosity returned to Draco's direction as they passed and glided again near them._

 _The lights were dim and reflecting around the room so it was hard to see whether where Draco's eyes were._

 _Come to think of it, Hermione realized that the spot where they were was the best spot in the room if they just wanted to observe and watch everyone else's activities in the hall._

 _"Ofcourse not." Hermione answered him in an undertone. "He's bored. He's been with Snape for the rest of the night."_

 _"He's been staring at you for the whole evening." Harry pointed out keeping her closer in his arms as if scared that Draco's mere staring would snatch her from him. "I've been looking at him."_

 _"Now look who's talking and looking." Hermione naughtily told him with a smile. "Seriously."_

 _Harry looked back at her and she has never looked so annoyed, amused and beautiful all at the same time._

 _A look of concern passed her eyes when she realized that Harry didn't find the matter laughable._

 _"Look, Harry." Hermione said with a kind smile at him. "Does it matter if he's looking?"_

 _"Matters to me." Harry pointed out as Hermione held his left cheek to remain his face turned to her._

 _"It doesn't matter to me." Hermione said as they closed in their gap altogether. "Tell me why it matters to you."_

 _Harry stared at her knowing the answer was there already but he was still as confused and unsure of it._

 _Truth was that, everything had been platonic between the two of them for as far as he could remember._

 _Platonic until this whole TriWizard tournament happened, until the Bulgarians arrived at the school, until he saw Viktor Krum one time at the library with her and was seemingly enjoying their time together._

 _It was that one moment, that one time that had changed everything he knew and felt for her._

 _But he wasn't sure how she felt and wasn't sure of himself either._

 _He didn't ask her to the ball then._

 _He asked someone else and eventually as to no surprise, he heard and knew that Viktor Krum would ask her to the ball and that she would say yes._

 _Why would she not?_

 _She was beautiful and intelligent and Viktor was handsome and was – well, athletically inclined._

 _She would not decline that kind of offer._

 _Besides, despite his brute façade, he seemed like a gentle being – something she wouldn't overlook._

 _"Let's not talk about Malfoy." Hermione's voice came. "Let's talk about you and Cho. I thought you were going to ask her."_

 _Harry looked up at her knowing that he'd have to answer that._

 _"Cedric got to ask her first." Harry said. "It's no surprise. They are close, I guess."_

 _"How do you feel about it?" she asked him and he looked surprised at her question._

 _"Not very much disappointed as I expected." Harry answered with honesty._

 _He was a lot more disappointed to find out that she was with Viktor Krum tonight._

 _Not that she was his second option._

 _But he eventually thought that if not with Cho, he was going with her._

 _He hasn't heard of them dating and he knows that Hermione would tell him._

 _Won't she?_

 _"Are you with him?" he asked before he could stop himself._

 _"With who?" Hermione genuinely asked him back unsure of who he had meant._

 _"Krum." Harry whispered at her as they had come close to dancing with a Bulgarian player and a girl from Beauxbatons. "Are you and him-"_

 _"Oh, no." Hermione said her eyes slightly alarmed. "No, we're not. He was… he just asked me. He's been asking me and on the third time I said yes."_

 _"Oh." Harry said realizing that if only he had tried asking her, she would eventually say yes immediately as he presumed. "Why the third time?"_

 _She looked up at him meeting his eyes as if he was an idiot._

 _"I was.." Hermione began unable to express her words immediately. "Sort of.."_

 _"Were you waiting for someone to ask you?" he asked her quickly hoping the answer was yes and that the answer was him._

 _"Yes." Hermione revealed then with a nod. "I was waiting for someone to ask me."_

 _His legs halted them from their slow dancing and she stopped staring around them as well and focused her gaze on him._

 _"Who were you waiting for to ask you?" Harry asked her gently as his hands moved ever gently around her as if she was some fragile object he needed to take very good care of in his arms._

 _Her soft hazel eyes looked back at him with reluctance and question – she was obviously confused about something._

 _"Hermione?" his voice came ever gently. "Who were you hoping to-"_

 _"You." Hermione answered him quickly red in the face. "I was hoping you would ask me first but I knew you would ask Cho first. And I was thinking she won't say no to you."_

 _Something like guilt and shame passed Harry's face._

 _"You alright?" she asked him with another smile. "It's alright. It doesn't matter. Aren't we dancing now?"_

 _He stared at her and held her hand warmly in his._

 _The glimmer of little light was clearer in her eyes as the happiness in them that was visible and clear._

 _"Yes." Harry answered her knowing that a lot of things will be better now. "Yes, I am now."_

"Hey." his voice came. "Hey, you alright, Harry?"

A genuine and expectant smile greeted him.

Harry looked up from the old newspaper article he was reading in his hands and stared up at Lupin across him from the table.

"Hungry?" he asked him as he excitedly kept the paper away. "Lunch and all?"

Harry stood up and reached over to his old mentor and gave him a very tight embrace before sitting back down from across the table.

Lupin stared at him with a smile seeing how excited and relived he seemed to look now that he was there.

"How have you been?" Harry asked as a waited handed them both a copy of the menu. "All is well?"

"Travel had been a little exhausting." Lupin answered him as Harry ordered a bottle of wine for them. "Nothing I couldn't handle. I guess I'm just not as young as I've been."

Harry stared back and continued to smile back at him.

He had never felt this glad and happy in a very long time.

There was that familiar feeling of security now that Lupin was back in town.

His presence had always given him relief.

"Glad to have you back." Harry said and then worry passed his eyes. "You are back, right?"

Lupin opened the menu that was handed to him but he stopped and stared up concernedly at Harry was had a stationary smile over his face.

"How are things, Harry?" he asked instead. "How have you been?"

The younger man nodded back at him as he reached over for his own copy of the meny.

"Surviving." he answered with a painful smile without meeting his eyes. "Not really or never really there, but you know, still trying everyday."

Lupin didn't need to ask what that meant.

Nothing much has changed from Harry since they parted a few years ago.

No, there was nothing in Harry that will ever change anymore.

He would grow older and older into this life, living in the past with the future he had lost forever.

The year is 2018.

It is now two decades since the Battle of Hogwarts, since the Dark Lord has been defeated and since lives were lost.

Since Hermione Jean Granger vanished.

Lupin had watched him from adolescence until he became an adult.

He had remained and had seen all the losses of the boy.

Lives were lost at the night of the transfer and Moody and his owl Hedwig were the first victims to that.

The Weasley twins had been a testament on how it was to lose a family member that Harry knew and was very much close to at the present time.

Coming back from the trip the trio had, Ron had almost survived the Battle at Hogwarts if it weren't for the sacrifice he had to make down the old Chamber of Secrets.

He and Neville had taken down Nagini but not until the vicious snake was able to take a bite at Ron and there was nothing the latter could do but watch him succumb into its poison.

As painful as it was, Tonks didn't survive either.

There were a lot of members of the light and of the Order that were lost but not without a cause.

Bellatrix Lestrange had lost her life in a one on battle with Mrs. Weasley as she attempted to kill Ginny right in front of her mother's eyes.

Though Arthur was injured, he had survived with Bill though not without having been bitten by Greyback and had been a werewolf ever since.

But it was the testament to Fleur's love for the Weasley boy.

She had not abandoned him.

If any, she had loved him ever more deeply for his bravery.

Lupin had survived as Snape did.

Although Snape had spent several months at Azkaban, proof of his years of service to the light was given by Harry and the other surviving Order members.

He was let go and after having been fully healed at St. Mungo's after Nagini's poisonous bite had taken full effect, he had decided to leave the country for good to start a new life.

Lucius Malfoy was taken to Azkaban for all the crimes he had done. And the only reason that he wasn't sentenced to death was because of Narcissa's outright betrayal of Harry's life to the Dark Lord when he asked if the boy was dead.

Draco was one of the people who had almost endured that privilege of not enduring Azkaban because of his mother's help to the Order and its relevance in defeating the Dark Lord.

But it was an almost kind of story.

As Hermione Granger almost survived as well.

She did survive the battle, but it wasn't the reason that her life was taken.

It was December – a cold and yet first happy Christmas and last for Harry since the Dark Lord has been vanquished.

The war was over by June and the months healed a lot of wounds and realities for those who survived the war.

By September, when things were better, Harry and Hermione had finally revealed to the world about their relationship that they had to keep very secret because it was surely going to be used by Voldemort in his attempt to take Harry down.

It wasn't a perfect relationship, they had their ups and downs and Lupin was the one man that Harry always turned to for advice.

It always worked.

And she always came back to his arms.

Everything had been good and smooth since they revealed their relationship out into the open and to the world.

Hermione had accepted it without thinking twice without second thoughts – she had embraced her fate with him.

Everything had been well until December came.

Hermione had proposed that the engagement party happen before Christmas because Fleur had accepted a job offer back at France that would last for a few months and she was needed to be there before the New Year came.

Hermione didn't want one of her bridesmaids to miss the engagement party.

And so with very little time to prepare, Harry still made arrangements and ensured that his future bride-to-be's wishes for the engagement party happens.

And it did happen.

The eve had been perfect for the engagement party.

Everyone they knew and loved were there.

The whole Weasley family were present, Ministry officials that were close to the two were also there including the newly installed Minister of Magic Kingsley and the rest of the heads of the departments that were friends of Mr. Weasley and who were up aligned to train Harry for his future Auror duties.

Professors from Hogwarts didn't go amiss with McGonagall at the top of the list, Hagrid and the rest of the Heads of Houses.

As expected, Snape was the only Hogwarts teacher who wasn't present.

Since he left by the end of September, he had made it very clear that he wasn't returning to London.

He kept very short and very rare notes to McGonagall who kept sending him letters to update him of everything about London.

Although he was obviously annoyed by these, he didn't ask her to stop sending them to him.

One letter bore the news of Harry Potter's engagement to Hermione Granger and his invitation to the party.

It took him three days to give a reply.

It was very short and clear: "Congratulations. May all be well."

And that was it.

Harry knew and understood it and didn't expect much from the man.

He had done his part in the battle, it was time for him to live his life.

Friends from Hogwarts were ofcourse there.

Even if Cho wasn't invited and didn't attend, news had reached her and she sent in a nice bouquet of flowers for the two straight from Denmark where she was already working.

Luna and Neville came ofcourse as most of the Gryffindor friends and the whole Quidditch team including old coach, Oliver Wood.

And Hermione had expressed to Harry that she had finally found her parents in Australia and was planning to get them back right after New Year when she was sure that they had enjoyed the holidays.

Everything had been well and nobody ever thought that the evening's good event would come up and sum into the most tragic incident in Harry's life.

The party had been going on well and was close to its end when Hermione had excused herself from the party to get something for which they never knew what was.

It had been snowing hard outside for hours and when after fifteen minutes she still hadn't returned, Harry had excused himself to follow her.

And he barely remembered anything at all.

He opened his eyes and he didn't find her.

He never found her.

He returned to them with a bloody feature and had uttered one word, one name alone:

Draco.

And the events from that point had been fast, had been filled with tension and frustration and in Harry's case, desperation.

Harry relayed the story upon returning to the others that Draco, for some unknowable reason how he got at the party, was there and had attacked Hermione.

He had arrived at the scene with Hermione's unconscious form by his feet and there was a trail of blood.

He had taken his wand out ready to duel with Draco and that was the last of what he remembered.

When he woke up, Draco was gone and so was Hermione.

It took them hours, nights and days that turned into weeks and then eventually, months and years.

Hermione's body was never found.

Never.

But Draco had been taken into custody and three months into the investigation, was found guilty and was sentenced to years at Azkaban.

He had evaded Azkaban by the crimes he had committed under the Dark Lord's orders.

But the attack and murder of Hermione Granger had placed him behind bars for years and years.

Harry had sworn that he was going to rot and die in there.

Draco had pleaded 'not-guilty' at the full Wizengamot court and had believed and stayed at his own conviction that he was innocent of the crime that had put him behind bars.

Narcissa Malfoy had used all the possible resourches and money she had left to save Draco's life.

A Defense Council was given to Draco and even a fair amount of old friends from the Ministry were asked to 'help Draco's case'.

But connections and money were no longer relevant at the government.

Draco was found guilty and in his past records, delusional as well.

He was caught red-handed and without any witness to prove the innocence he claims.

Draco Malfoy, at the timely and right age of 18, was one of the youngest recorded Azkaban prisoner under the conviction of harassment, assault and eventually, murder.

It was a triple case he lost from.

It was equivalent to three forty years in Azkaban or more closely described as a life sentence.

Draco was immediately taken down at the bowels and depths of Azkaban prison right after trial and never to see day light ever again.

Not until very recently, at precisely twenty years or two decades later, where parole could possibly be given to the young Malfoy heir.

With the new regime's laws and other regularities and legalities finally put into a solid place under Minister of Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt, every inch and depths of certain cases were to be read and taken into consideration.

And given that Draco's Azkaban records were clean and clear of any mishap, attempt of escape or anything that would have made him stay into that prison, his case was reviewed for months.

The new regime were true to each word of every law it passed.

Draco Malfoy, had barely spoken since he was thrown at Azkaban.

Whether it was by choice or out of shock, he wasn't sure.

But it was his silence and docile attitude within the prison that had saved his life.

Draco Malfoy was among the ones granted that year to receive a parole, a chance to redeem himself and begin a new life.

 _It was snowing quite bad but Hermione managed and finished all of her Christmas shopping on time._

 _The last of what she bought was something for her parents before she leaves in three days' time to join Harry and the rest at Grimmauld Place for Christmas._

 _Christmas season from last year felt quite far and gone now._

 _Not only because of the Triwizard's events that differentiated this holiday to the previous, but because of the growing terror of the Dark Lord's return to power._

 _Nobody believes the Order of the Phoenix that he is back._

 _And despite the growing mistrust of the Ministry towards headmaster Dumbledore and even to Harry, the members of the Order were doing their best to recruit for the light in spite of all the possible dangers of it._

 _If she was worried, she didn't speak about it to Harry._

 _She didn't want to add up to his stress about the matter and didn't want him to think that she was a coward._

 _She wasn't a coward._

 _She was anything but it._

 _Hermione entered a small and slightly crowded café in hopes that she could let the drizzle or rather the growing blizzard pass before she meets her parents at the restaurant a few blocks from where she was and were still at a party with their workmates._

 _She inhaled the delicious fumes of the aroma of the caffeine the moment she stepped inside and she immediately felt warm._

 _Her brown eyes moved around for an empty table she knew won't be there anyway._

 _She walked further the café hearing orders being called out, hearing the chatter of other customers, the laughter and excitement of the season all around her._

 _Hermione smiled and couldn't help but be truly happy about the occasion._

 _In three days, she was going to join the others at Grimmauld place for the holidays._

 _She had bought enough gifts from everybody that she had handpicked herself._

 _She was excited to give her gift for both Ron and Harry._

 _She also had something for professor Lupin should he be there for the holidays as Harry had hinted in one of his letters._

 _Hermione's eyes widened as an old couple began leaving a corner-most table next to a good window view._

 _She quickly excused herself around her as she forced herself through the crowd to get the table at the other end of the room that no one else seems to notice._

 _As she reached the area, the old man with his wife's arm around his, looked up at her with a nod and smiled and discreetly gestured towards the table._

 _Hermione nodded gleefully and though they had barely made it a few feet from the table, Hermione whispered a thank you to them and literally jumped to the chair by the table and flung her bag forward to ensure that she had 'saved' the spot for herself._

 _But that was the problem._

 _A black box with green ribbon had been firmly dropped over the table at the exact same time she flung two of her pink and red bags over the table._

 _She looked up with a quick sketch of annoyance and worry over her face just as a pair of grey eyes met hers._

 _"Malfoy?" she blurted out, eyes wide in surprise at seeing Draco Malfoy, of all people, in a crowded Muggle café at a Muggle community or city in London._

 _He looked back at her without a flinch, without any hint of surprise._

 _"Granger." Draco said as he began to settle his stuff over the table and began to remove an expensive looking pair of gloves on his hands._

 _Hermione watched with open mouth as Draco settled by the table, completely ignoring her things that were all over it._

 _She wasn't sure which was more surprising – the fact that he had the balls to sit there and ignore her knowing she had reached the table first or the fact that he was in a Muggle café, in a Muggle community._

 _"What are you doing here?" she demanded with a tone pulling the opposite chair up and purposely placing the rest of her shopping bags over the table to the point that Draco's only shopping was already at the edge of the table with a tendency to fall over._

 _"Coffee, ofcourse." Draco said as he settled both gloves over the table and gently pushed his box back at the middle of the table with the need to slowly push aside one of Hermione's bags to make space for his hand-carry._

 _Hermione opened her mouth again for a retort but the sight of him was surprise enough to block her thoughts._

 _"Were you going to get coffee as well?" he casually asked her as he began to shrug off a bit of snow over his blonde hair._

 _"I was-" Hermione began as she sat up straight to make an impression. "This is my table, Malfoy. You can go sit somewhere else."_

 _"Excuse me?" Draco said looking up at her. "Your table?"_

 _"Yes." Hermione said as he slowly began to look over the table, moving utensils and napkins around. "What are you looking for?"_

 _"Your name." Draco said with a smile as he lowered the napkin back down the table. "You said this is your table?"_

 _Hermione rolled her eyes at him biting her lower lip in annoyance._

 _"Are you kidding me?"_

 _"No, you said this is your table. I'm looking for proof."_

 _She stared at him, arms crossed over her chest._

 _"I don't know why you're here-" Hermione breathed out at him. "But you have to get yourself another table. I'm not sharing with you."_

 _"I told you, why I'm here." Draco said gesturing over the coffee design at the wall near them. "And isn't this for sharing?"_

 _Hermione looked at the sign posted where a clear, valid and large signage read "Share a table. Make a friend."_

 _He smiled triumphantly at her, gesturing her to remain at the seat opposite him._

 _Hermione opened her mouth to say something but Draco suddenly stood up and pointed over the gift box he had placed over the table._

 _"I'll get my coffee. Can you watch for my stuff?" he said pointing over the box and then pulling up a small pocket watch from the inside of his jacket pocket for the time._

 _And before Hermione could even say anything, he turned from her and left the table._

 _Her brains seemed jammed as she watched Draco happily walk away from the table._

 _She quietly observed as like a gentleman that she didn't really believe he was, he walked at the very end of the line of customers as he let an old lady line up before him._

 _Hermione impatiently but quietly watched at the distance as the customers' line improved._

 _Her eyes were on Draco but not once did he look back at her direction or if his belongings were still safe by the table where he had left it._

 _She was becoming impatient as two or three customers took time to order and be validated with their payments that the line did not move for a while fifteen minutes._

 _Draco looked calm and collected and not a trace of impatience could be seen from his face._

 _Hermione rolled her eyes, uncrossed her leg and crossed them at the other way around._

 _She also needed coffee and was also hungry but she couldn't leave their table and she certainly won't yell her order across the room to ask Draco to buy her order for her._

 _Maybe because she was either thirsty or hungry that she sat back against the wall and then settled her eyes on Draco._

 _He seemed to be taller than she last saw him before the Christmas holidays began and he seemed like he had enough sleep over the holidays._

 _Maybe the Malfoys did enjoy their vacations at their finest and Draco's well-rested and good looks were proof to that._

 _She blushed and looked away as she realized what she had momentarily thought of Draco._

 _Hermione heavily sighed and decided to get up from the table and just leave but before she could do that, several lads came to her table._

 _She looked up at them with an expression over her face as about three of them and who were probably as old as Charlie Weasley stood before her._

 _"Yes?" she asked one of them with a raised brow._

 _"Seat taken?" one of them asked but he had sat already and gave Hermione a wink. "So honey, you alone? Mind if we join you?"_

 _Hermione watched as one of them blocked her side and the other had stood behind the one who sat in front of her obviously as a look out._

 _Hermione felt her wand inside her pocket but before she could even say anything, a voice came._

 _"She's not alone." Draco's cold and firm tone said as he walked back to their table with two cups of hot coffee in his hands. "And I do mind. Do you mind?"_

 _He stared at the three older lads whose eyes were on the cups of hot coffee in his hands that were just a spill away from the face of the one who was sitting in front of Hermione._

 _There was silence and Hermione could tell that the three were thinking if this was even worth pursuing when Draco was obviously more than ready to throw the burning hot coffee right at their face.s_

 _"Well?" he asked settling one of the large cups over the table and placing his hand in his pocket where Hermione was sure he was reaching for his own wand._

 _He never once looked at her as his eyes were fierce and fixed upon the dark haired boys before him._

 _"Assuming you're a friend?" the guy in front of Hermione asked him with a smirk._

 _"The boyfriend." Draco clearly stated standing a bit more straight as if to make himself seem taller than necessary._

 _Hermione's eyes widened at the term he had used and she couldn't help but blush at that very moment._

 _The lad stared up at Draco then at Hermione for validation the back at Draco._

 _"Really?" he said in a mocking tone. "Sure about that? She looks above your league, mate."_

 _Hermione stared and saw Draco's right hand's muscle flex that was inside his pocket with the wand._

 _"Is this true, beauty?" he asked staring back at Hermione. "You know this lad? The boyfriend?"_

 _Hermione looked up at Draco who stared hard back at her, communicating with his eyes._

 _She didn't understand._

 _But he was obviously trying to help her out of the situation and she didn't really have much choice._

 _She only hoped that Draco would be gentleman enough not to remind her ever again of her response._

 _"Yes." Hermione said with a smile nodding towards Draco. "It's true."_

 _Draco gave her a sweet smile and turned back to the boys._

 _"So do you mind if we make some time for ourselves?" he asked them with a threatening glare to the other two onlookers._

 _The lad still didn't look convince at him although he stood up, he still blocked Draco from sitting on the chair._

 _"Yes?" he asked him eyes narrowed this time around. "What else do you want you imbecile?"_

 _The lad laughed, mocking him._

 _"Kiss her." he demanded with a smile. "Kiss her right now in front of us if that's true and then we'll leave you alone."_

 _Hermione's eyes quickly turned at Draco who for a moment, had looked completely blank at the request._

 _But the look of fear quickly vanished from his eyes._

 _"Alright, but I'm a private person. Would you mind asking your friends to come closer and have a look so I don't have to do it twice?"_

 _"Sure." the lad answered gesturing for his friends to block the view and come closer them._

 _Hermione stared up at Draco, unsure of what he was planning._

 _He gave her one nod and look and smiled down at her._

 _"A kiss, sweetheart." Draco said lowering the other coffee over the table and discreetly pulling the wand inside his pocket while he indirectly nodded at her to keep her gaze at him. "A kiss?"_

 _"Yeah, a kiss." the boys mocked them still._

 _Hermione sat still over her chair, waiting and staring as Draco moved closer her, hand in his pocket._

 _"On three?" Draco clearly said with a smile towards Hermione as he edged closer to her side of the table and slowly began to lower his face to hers._

 _"Yeah, on three." the others replied in unison, mocking them both._

 _Hermione felt stunned as Draco's pale and pointed face began to move at her direction._

 _His face was smiling but he remained impassive._

 _"On three, sweetheart." Draco whispered keeping his gaze locked into hers. "One.. two… three."_

 _And then Draco closer the two feet gap between their faces and moved his face to hers._

 _Hermione's face parted as she did anticipate for the kiss, the real kiss from Draco._

 _Blocked from the others' view, he moved an inched closer from her face._

 _Draco smiled at her._

 _And then with the softest of tone from him, he whispered as three times just loud enough for her to hear:_

 _"Stupefy."_

 _Hermione's eyes grew wide in fear and shock and Draco triumphantly smiled at her._

 _She heard the sound of gasps and then the sound of falling bodies onto the floor._


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Notes:

 _ **Finally a chapter update.**_

 _ **For those wondering, there is Harmione in this story but is mainly Dramione.**_  
 _ **It is romance and angst and a tad of mystery.**_

 _ **It is not yet complete, WIP and a slowburn.**_

 _ **Each chapter has some paragraph written in 'italic' like my other stories which tells you that it's either a memory, a dream or a flash back.**_

 _ **All my stories are found at AO3, AND .**_

 _ **Other than, he is a chapter.**_

 _ **For those who read my other Dramione Through the Son, it has been updated yesterday.**_

 _ **Hopefully, my other stories will be updated later today or tomorrow.**_

 _ **Lots of love**_

 _ **xx**_

 _ **II**_

"I received Molly's letter." Lupin said as they walked down the streets of London where in a nearer avenue, was a shortcut to the Ministry of Magic where Harry worked as an Auror.

He had fulfilled his dream of becoming one of the youngest Aurors of their government and Lupin could not be any more proud of him.

"I got one too." Harry said as they entered a small pastry shop and had walked straight into a particular aisle. "Dinner party and all."

"What are we celebrating?" Lupin curiously asked as he slung his backpack better behind him.

"You ofcourse." Harry casually replied with a smile. "Everyone missed you very much."

"And I did miss everyone." Lupin answered him as they turned another aisle. "Is that were we're going? Do you need help with that?"

"No, thanks." Harry replied as he forced himself to carry atleast three large packs of different pastries. "And yes, we're going at their place. You have not seen the renovation, right?"

"Only the first ones." Lupin answered recalling that the last time he was there, Molly had begun a few renovations at the Burrow. "Everyone present?"

"I'm not sure with Charlie." Harry said as he grabbed a small jar of blueberry and cream cheese from another aisle and began walking towards the line of the shop. "But Bill and Fleur are most likely present."

"They're back in town?" Lupin asked him as he walked by his side on the short line.

"Fleur had a job at France and they have been there for about two years or so." Harry answered as the lady in front of him finished up and he reached the counter. "They come and go for the holidays and other occasions. Ofcourse your return to London is an occasion to be celebrated."

Lupin nodded at him and watched as the old lady by the counter greeted Harry, who was an obvious regular at the place.

"Just muffins and pretzels today, Mr. Potter?" asked the old lady as she checked his purchase.

"Oh, some goat cheese, please." Harry said as he fretted inside old old cloak with a few more bills he could use.

"Here, Harry." Lupin said, quick to reach out money from his pocket to place over the counter.

"Thanks." Harry said pushing it gently forward the old lady who had grabbed a damp packaged from the back of the shop and nicely packed it inside some paper. "I always forget to bring in small changes."

"Are we going to Godric's tonight after the dinner?" he casually asked Harry as they watched the old lady finish up with Harry's purchases.

"No." Harry sharply told him looking up as if he was giving an untimely joke. "Why would you say that?"

"Nothing." Lupin answered him with a gentle smile over his face. "I was thinking of sleeping there since I haven't got the key to the new, small apartment that-"

"I inquired and they finish up in about a week." Harry told him as he grabbed the purchases from the counter. "Mrs. Weasley offered a room at the Burrow while you wait for it."

"Oh, right." Lupin said as he walked after Harry's quick pace out of the shop. "I was thinking of visiting Lily and James."

"I transferred them." Harry simply told him as they walked down the pavement. "You can visit them some other time. I'm sure they won't mind."

"You had them what?" Lupin repeated slightly surprised at Harry's news. "Where? When?"

"For some time. Have I not mentioned it at my last few letters?" Harry answered him as he handed him one of the bags that was on the verge of slipping from his hand. "I'm sorry, I can't carry this one. I need to buy something else. How was your travel?"

"It was good." Lupin said. "A few extra waiting hours because they had to double check if I was the Remus J. Lupin they heard or probably read about somewhere."

"Yeah, well you know, war heroes." Harry said with a very slight glimpse of a smile from his face that Lupin had been waiting since they met earlier from the café at the station.

Lupin took the other bag and watched as Harry moved around the shop and obviously had some more shopping in mind.

As he stared at the boy, he wasn't sure of what to feel and think exactly.

It has been since he had graduated from Auror Training Academy and had been there for his graduation where the boy had graduated with good honors.

And yet, Lupin still couldn't help but feel pity for him or feel that something had changed and had been entirely different with the boy.

He had been particular and strong in his belief that she was still somewhere out there, alive and probably searching for him.

His training at the academy helped him with coping with the loss and the depression he was succumbing into through the earlier years but Lupin knew that it wasn't enough to help him be entirely better.

Although he had obviously grown in a healthy and better man in certain ways, he didn't seem to think much of himself or rather had lost interest in a lot of things.

Through their holiday meetings and reunions and exchanges of letters through the years, he learned that Harry had completely lost interest in Quidditch that he had stopped watching games or catching any news about the sport.

He had focused mainly on his training as an Auror and had been one of the best field agents that the Ministry has ever seen.

His dueling skills had not only enhanced nor aced well through time, but he had been an expert in it that even as one of the youngest Aurors to enter the Ministry, he had been given a license to not just participate in dueling classes but had been particularly requested by a few Hogwarts alumni to give a few classes every now and then now that the subject was available in the Defense Against the Dark Arts curriculum.

Harry had become one of the youngest and best Aurors of his time and the only regret was that he lived through his dreams and had survived the war without Hermione Granger by his side.

And all of it had come and gone and decayed through the years as Harry lost and lost interest into many other aspects of his life that he now reserves himself as a behind the desk agent or consultant at the Ministry of Magic.

Unless the case has something or anything at all to do with Hermione Jean Granger, Harry never left the office and preferred to stay behind and the field work he received had become scarce through time.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked as he noticed Lupin staring concerned at him like a father who has not seen his son for a very long time. "Is everything alright?"

"I just can't believe how fast you've grown, Harry." Lupin immediately answered him, looking away to straighten up his glasses back in place. "James would have been proud-"

"Yes, well, nothing we can do about spilled milk." Harry shortly said without meeting his eyes as an obvious attempt to avoid the subject.

"Right, I'm sorry." Lupin murmured nodding at him. "Ever thought of a few days or weeks of vacation?"

"No." Harry answered him as they walked down a corner street where an Apparition point was made possible for tourists and travelers at that side of London streets. "So much desk work."

Lupin opened his mouth to reason a bit more but Harry had paced a little faster and had walked ahead of him.

In truth, as far as Lupin knew, Harry had not been anywhere else in the past years.

He had attempted, even Molly and Arthur had attempted to advise him to get himself a vacation elsewhere just to take time to rest from the workload at the Ministry but he had graciously denied everything.

Even Bill and Fleur had invited him over to their place at France and promised him that he could stay for as long as he wanted to but he only denied it.

He didn't want to leave London for obvious reasons – he was still waiting for her.

Harry was obviously waiting for some miracle or explanation fate would bring him about Hermione.

His eyes moved before him, watching Harry closely.

The boy's hair had become longer and lankier, and he had become thinner than the last time he saw him. If it were funny, Lupin would have pointed out that he now neither look like Lily nor James but of Snape.

He had settled himself to wearing simple clothes as well, very laid back and dark in colors and close to shabby and nonchalant when he wasn't in his Auror uniform.

The boy had obviously aced well in the early years of his career and through the years, he had also slowly forgotten or had preferred neglecting taking good care of himself.

And Lupin, like everyone else, knew why.

Lupin wasn't sure if he wanted to blame himself for the years or times he wasn't around the boy to watch and take good care of him.

"Thank you for that." Hermione muttered as they walked down a park away from the café where they had run in into the obviously perverted group of bullies.

"What?" Draco asked her as he grasped the bag of takeouts tightly in his free hand as they walked up the grassy field to get a good picnic spot.

"I said thank you for what you did back there." Hermione muttered avoiding his eyes as she walked a few steps behind him.

"I'm sorry, I can't hear you." Draco smirked straightening up the Slytherin scarf across his neck and smiling widely at her. "I'm a little deaf sometimes-"

"Occasionally deaf." Hermione pointed out rolling her eyes and already knowing that he heard her the first time and only wanted to hear her repeat it. "I already said it twice. I'm not going to say it again."

Draco smirked at her and halted at the spot where she did and pointed him to lay her the bags down as she transfigured her small handkerchief into a large picnic mat.

"It's nothing." Draco said settling down and opening the bags of pastry they bought and the two cups of hot chocolate. "I hate bullies."

"Wow. Big words coming from you, Malfoy." Hermione snarky said shaking her head. "I suppose I'll hear you apologizing to Neville one of these days."

Draco snorted at her in disagreement and Hermione moved his cup away from him that he had been reaching.

"Excuse me?" Hermione asked as Draco's smile fainted at her gesture.

"Longbottom is a special case." Draco said and with a flick of his finger, the cup disappeared from Hermione's hand and into his. "I don't even know why you would suggest it to me."

"Because that's what's right." Hermione gasped watching as the cup was gone in her hand. "How did you do that?"

"You're not the only smart person at school, Granger." Draco said taking his first sip of the warm drink.

"Yeah, well I'm sure having 'aunt Bella' has its perks." Hermione muttered rolling her eyes and settling herself a little away from him.

Draco's eyes moved sharply at her but he didn't say anything immediately.

"Aunt Bella," he slowly began. "Isn't as nice as you think she is and that's right. But that doesn't mean she doesn't care. She very much cares for my mother and for me."

"Your aunt Bella killed Harry's godfather." Hermione snapped back at him unable to stop herself from retorting. "I don't think I have to remind you that."

"Well if he had been out of the way, he wouldn't have died." Draco shot back at her eyes flashing at her direction. "You know what Granger, I don't think this is a good idea at all."

"Yeah, I know." Hermione said quick to stand right back up again. "I was just thinking of the same thing Malfoy."

She stood up and prepared to gather her things when Draco's eyes showed panic and slight fear.

"Where are you going?" he asked her quickly standing up as well.

"Home." Hermione shot at him grabbing her scarf from the grass but Draco's hand shot out of nowhere and he stopped her.

She looked up at him and he looked very apologetic.

"I'm sorry." Draco genuinely blurted out. "I'm an arse."

"Yes, you are." Hermione said grabbing her hand away from his hand.

He looked back at her, lost for words and frantically searching for something he could say to make her stop from leaving him there.

"I didn't mean it." Draco said as Hermione was halfway into marching way from the mat they were on. "What I said – I didn't mean it. I didn't mean any of it. I don't think anyone should die in this war."

"But this is a war, Draco." Hermione said marching back at him. "This is war and deaths are going to come whether we like it or not. You said it yourself, you're smart. You know that's true."

He looked back at her and knew that she had been harboring all these thoughts in her all this summer.

That's why perhaps she had been spending a lot more of time outside than at home – the thought of death of people she knew and loved consumed her.

"I know that." Draco softly answered her reaching for her hand. "Let's not waste time arguing. I thought we both agreed to be here to be away from all those things? Did you change your mind?"

Hermione bit her lower lip.

Ofcourse she didn't change her mind.

And as she hated to admit it, she actually finds herself enjoying Draco Malfoy's company.

Not that he was better than Harry and Ron.

But he was sensible to talk to and he had a lot of good perspective on things too and he was good at intellectual arguments.

Conversations with him challenge her in an interesting and challenging way – something she couldn't seem to gain or satisfy herself with in Harry or Ron's company.

"Hermione?" he gently called her name offering his open palm at her.

"Fine." Hermione said shaking her head and throwing her bag back down the mat and sitting back. "Hand over the pretzel, I'm really hungry."

Draco smiled at her and gently reached over the bag again and handed it to her as he began another conversation with her about all other things that weren't related to the war that they both knew would come inevitably.

"Oh, Remus!" Mrs. Weasley greeted him with a very tight embrace right across the neck.

"Molly, yes – take it easy-" he chuckled embracing her back as Harry squeezed himself through the narrow doorway of the Burrow, greeting everyone and bringing in the food they bought.

Ginny quickly greeted him, taking the largest bag in his hand that contained some good one.

"Looking sharp, professor." George happily greeted standing up from the couch and embracing Lupin. "Business doing well?"

"Doing fine." Lupin answered blushing at the mention of it. "The school is expanding."

After the war, all war heroes were awarded an Order of Merlin First Class and not to mention several galleons for each of them.

Snape had obviously used his to buy himself a way out of the country to start his new life with a good vacation he well deserved and last of what they heard, he opened an Apothecary for himself.

Lupin had used his earnings to put up a bookshop and a small school that taught magic to children that had been victims of fate alike his case.

"That's great news then." Bill's voice came from the flight of stairs as he came down with a beautiful wife behind him. "We would actually like to see the school and make a visit."

"Ofcourse, that will be nice." Lupin said giving him a quick hug and a quick peck on Fleur's cheek. "Where are the little ones?"

"With my aunt in Florence." Fleur gently answered as she waved at Harry who passed their direction and back at the kitchen. "Having a vacation and thoroughly being spoiled. I try not to spoil them but ze family is just-"

"They deserve to be spoiled, sweetheart." Bill said kissing her worrisome features. "And I would like ofcourse to spend more time with just you."

Lupin smiled back at him and he winked and the small exchange made Fleur blush even more and she gently punched Bill's shoulder.

"Molly and I made pasta." Fleur said excitedly remembering. "Come, come let us all eat."

"That's great." Lupin said taking his backpack down. "Harry bought a lot of pastry that could match that."

Lupin and the rest gathered around the expanded Burrow.

After being burned by Bellatrix a few years down, a few renovations had been made and right after Ginny graduated from Hogwarts from her final year, she decided to help out with her first earnings from professionally playing Quidditch into full renovation of the Burrow.

The once towering house was now a mere three story floor but with a largely expanded rooms and garden for Mrs. Weasley's backyard fruits and vegetables.

A small library had been put up that had been Charlie's idea; Fred's old room had been turned into a guest room whenever an Order member visited them or when Lupin was around town.

The kitchen was also now separated from the actual dining room which expanded beautifully thanks to Fleur's help in putting it together with Molly and Ginny.

Even if Percy just visited once or twice a year, other than Fred and George's old room, everyone else had their room still intact and ready to house its owners as before.

George only visited on reunions and he bunked in the same room as Charlie while Ron's old room were being used by Harry on his visits and on other occasions, bunked with trunks of the guests.

The dining was flourished with good chats, good food and wine and a lot of good ambiance, if any it was only Harry who was always, out of sync from everyone else.

He chatted with people, answered a one line sentence mostly from the questions thrown at him about life and work in recent and other than, right after he finished his meal, he excused himself and grabbed a glass of wine and went outside to the gardens as he wanted some fresh air.

"He stays this way?" Lupin curiously asked as Fleur and Ginny began washing dishes while Arthur and Molly joined Lupin and Bill to remain in the dining to finish some cake that Ginny bought earlier and the wine that Harry and Lupin had bought as well.

"No changes?" Lupin asked thanking Arthur for refilling his glass.

"Changes?" Molly repeated shaking her head. "If any, he had become worse through time. He never had.. he mostly stopped spending time with me."

"But he's here with us, isn't that-"

"He's here because you're here, mate." Bill said as he slouched back at the large couch. "He's smart enough to understand that if he does not show up tonight, you will ask questions and you will worry and everyone else will do so."

"Aren't we all?" Lupin asked looking around the room. "Shouldn't we all?"

"We worry about him, but what can we do?" Arthur asked Lupin. "We used to have Friday night dinners, you remember that?"

"Yes, ofcourse. Doesn't happen anymore?" Lupin asked him.

"We moved it to Saturdays." Molly said. "Because he said that he had too much desk work for Fridays and he wants to finish up so he can relax on Saturdays since he doesn't have work then."

"And then?"

"And then he just stopped coming over. A week of being late then being absent for it and then, it became a never." Molly sadly told him rubbing her eyes momentarily. "He used to be very cheerful, very happy to dine in our table, very amiable about everything."

"Hermione's loss changed him completely. He never stopped looking for her but we all know that we all never found her and never will. It affected Harry gravely." Bill straightforward told him. "He was never the same."

Lupin took all these in and wondered if he should have stayed at London where everyone else was, where Harry had been through the years, refusing to leave in his belief that Hermione will come back one of these days.

"He still waits for her." Bill pointed out. "At every Christmas. He stays right outside for hours. Maybe roaming around the small forest spot where he lost her. I don't know, Remus. He no longer celebrates it with any of us the way he used to."

"He seemed and sounded alright in his letters." Lupin said thinking hard. "He even sent me-"

"They're letters, Remus." Molly said with a hint of sadness all over her features. "Letters won't really tell you everything."

"I'll try to talk to him." Lupin said finishing the wine in his glass. "I'll talk to him."

"Be gentle with him." Bill said. "Every single day it seems for him like a battle between his belief that she will come back to him or that he mourns every day at the loss of her and should just let her go."

"He is not at peace?"

"We lost him the day we lost her." Ginny whispered with tears in her eyes as they all turned to see her standing by the doorway with a tearful smile as she had been listening the whole time when they were talking about Harry.

"Ginny?" Lupin began standing up. "We were-"

"He's by the gardens." Ginny said pointing outside. "He's by himself. I suggest you go talk to him before he walks himself home."

Lupin looked at the others and they all completely agree that he follow Ginny's suggestion to taking the moment to talk to Harry while he was alone by the gardens.

 _"Just calm down, just calm down." Draco whispered to himself wiping sweat off his forehead as he tapped and walked back and forth Hermione's doorstep. "Just fucking calm down. You're a Malfoy for Salazar Slytherin's sake!"_

 _There came heavy footsteps and Draco halted in his miserable form and quickly straightened up, eyes slightly wide and lips dry._

 _The door suddenly opened at his face and he looked up at a tall, gentle looking man before him._

 _"Yes?" the man asked him with a knowing look over his face._

 _Draco opened his mouth to say something but no words came out._

 _He felt his whole body frozen on the spot as he couldn't find words to tell this man._

 _"He's here. Mom, just calm down and no, don't pull the lace – mum, please I'm alright." Draco heard Hermione's voice echoing somewhere inside the house._

 _It wasn't until he heard her voice that he had managed to find his and slightly calm down._

 _"Sir." Draco said mindlessly holding out the large bouquet of expensive looking red and white roses._

 _"For me?" the man greeted him pointing over the roses with a smile._

 _"No." Draco quickly said withdrawing it and offering his empty hand. "I mean – well, it's – Draco Malfoy, sir. Draco Malfoy and I was-"_

 _"Come on in, buddy." Mr. Granger said grabbing his hand and patting him hard over the back. "No need to fret. We know who you are and expected you're coming. Come, my wife has made some tea before you leave."_

 _And Draco, without any other choice and still sweating in his very expensive and nice looking Muggle suit entered the house._

 _Every step he took inside the house felt like he was losing air in his lungs._

 _If his father ever finds out about this – his pride and only son – Draco Malfoy, Slytherin and heir to the Black and Malfoy billions was in a Muggle business suit and was seated inside a small and nice looking Muggle home at the heart of London._

 _Mr. Grange scooted him to the long and comfortable couch when upon sitting, he immediately sank deep into it._

 _"Soft, eh?" Mr. Granger said amused at his face as he tried to recover from the couch. "Hermione loves that spot especially when she reads."_

 _"Yeah, I can tell so." Draco muttered annoyed that he had to make extra effort to pull himself up from it and seat at the very edge so that he does not sink back again._

 _"She'll be here in a minute." Mr. Granger said staring at his very nervous state at the moment. "So, Dr-Dram-Dra-"_

 _"Draco." Draco corrected him with a mixture of nervousness and annoyance in his tone. "Draco Malfoy."_

 _"Right." Mr Granger smiled at him in his perfectly aligned white teeth. "So you and Hermione have been friends for years?"_

 _Draco opened his mouth unsure of what to say._

 _He had earlier mentioned that Hermione had 'told them about him' and now he was asking if they have been friends?_

 _What exactly did Hermione tell them about him?_

 _"Schoolmates." Draco blurted out. "I mean, we were on the same year so basically we were always at the same classes and activities at the school and all. We both will be sixth year this coming September."_

 _"So you take Muggle Studies?" Mr. Granger said in complete delight. "Hermione still takes it and she says that she and another student is a Muggle-Born is that what-?"_

 _'Mudblood' was the word inside his head but he ofcourse bit his lip to stop himself from saying something he was surely going to regret._

 _"Yes." Draco said in a forced calm voice. "I mean, Muggle-Born and no, I don't take Muggle Studies."_

 _"Oh, too bad I was going to ask you about your opinion on Muggles and Muggle-Born and what was that Half-Bloods?"_

 _"I'm a Pureblood." Draco proudly pointed out directly even though he wasn't sure Hermione's father really understood the depth of bloodlines or anything they were talking about at all. "I come from a family that was-"_

 _"Long lineage of old money and history." Mrs. Granger said walking into the room and holding out a nice tray of tea and cookies for Draco. "Hermione's told us a lot of things about you, Draco."_

 _Draco swallowed hard and smiled back at the woman that was Hermione's mother._

 _He stared at the woman and she felt the same nervous feeling all over again and only this time, twice._

 _For some reason, he feared the woman and her aura basically reminded him of his own mother only less the expensive outfit and adorning jewelries all over her._

 _She was beautiful as her daughter and she had a kind knitted smile over her face, a youth that was still there in her eyes and a better look and colour about her hair that Hermione did not seem to inherit at all._

 _There was kindness and softness in her eyes but something like a determined look and love of a mother for a child was there – she was kind but she was also obviously a very strong and opinionated woman._

 _And Draco was sure, these were the qualities that Hermione had inherited without any doubt_

 _"Draco Malfoy, ma'am." Draco said quickly standing up and offering his hand this time to Mrs. Granger with a slight bow of his head._

 _Mrs. Granger stared at him for a moment and then she broke into a smile and pulled him to her and gave her a very quick and tight embrace._

 _Draco had been too surprise to comprehend the situation even when she had already let him go._

 _He had never been greeted that way by anyone he had greeted and met for the first time._

 _Most of the associates or guests at the Malfoy Manor was either greeted with a curt nod or very brief handshake._

 _Definitely no hugs and smiles and no tea or cookies at all._

 _"Help yourself, Draco." she kindly said. "Hermione's just fitting up her shoes. She does not want the same trouble as the Yule Ball."_

 _"Oh." Draco said grabbing one of the tea cups out of respect he suddenly found himself feeling inside of him and taking a small sip from it._

 _"Speaking of that ball." Mr. Granger began to wonder. "You would have attended it too, isn't that so? Being on the same year as our 'Mione?"_

 _"Yes." Draco said with a nod as he returned the cup back to the tray. "We were all required to associate with the foreign guests and my father as part of the governor of the school was-"_

 _"Why did we not see you in the photographs?" Mr. Granger asked him in genuine wonder._

 _"I'm sorry?" Draco simply said trying to hide his anxiousness on the question and knowing exactly why there was no existing photograph of them together or any of her and her friends at all that he was there._

 _"Yes, there were no photographs of you two." Mr. Granger asked curiously. "I saw the entire album that were sent by coverage of the Ministry of something-"_

 _"I mean, we were – it wasn't really- maybe the photos were about her house, you see we were in different houses and I'm in Slytherin and Hermione is in Gryffindor-"_

 _"Draco's not very much into having his photos taken. He's a very shy and private person. He does not like the limelight at all." Hermione said as she slowly walked into the room with such beauty and grace. "Come now you guys, you promised you won't grill Draco."_

 _Draco's nearly choked at the cookie in his mouth at the mention of what had been happening for the past few minutes._

 _They all looked up at her with a smile and Draco had his mouth hanging open at the sight of her._

 _She was in a very beautiful small black dress with a unique kind of collar that created a line and a little patterned way behind her back that revealed a bit more of her skin._

 _Her hair had been either brushed or washed or magically placed down in wavy ends that fell past her shoulders._

 _"Let's go?" Hermione asked him kissing her mother and father over the cheeks. "We won't be late, promise."_

 _"Yes, yes, right." Draco said quickly standing up and handing over her bouquet of flowers to her because he wasn't sure what to say or do next. "I mean, I'll get her back before midnight and all."_

 _Hermione smiled at him, biting her lower lip to stop herself from laughing out loud._

 _Draco had obviously read a few Muggle articles to know what to say even if she knew he has no idea what he really meant or what was happening around him._

 _"Where are you going again, deary?" Mr. Granger said standing up and leading them up to the door._

 _"Just movies." Hermione replied kissing her mother again on the cheek. "Dinner and movies."_

 _"Yes." Draco quickly said fretting his hand around for his wand inside his pocket because there was no way anymore he was going to the theatre or whatever that was by Muggle means. "We will just have dinner and get a – that thing that she said-"_

 _"Movies, Draco." Hermione said and without warning and as normal and casually as she could, she grabbed Draco's hand into hers and led them out of the house as Mr. and Mrs. Granger bid him a gentle and friendly goodbye._

 _The door closed behind them and Hermione had been talking about where to get dinner._

 _But he was barely listening._

 _His eyes were on their hands that were together as she held them closely in hers as she led them down the pavement._

 _Draco berated himself and started to force himself to smile back at her and focus his head into listening to what she was telling him as they walked down the street._

 _"You don't mind walking right?" Hermione asked him as they made it a few blocks away from home already. "It just at the next two streets. The night air is just really-"_

 _"I don't mind walking." Draco cut short as he paced closely next to her still holding her hand. "Not at all."_

 _A smile on his face as he secretly stashed his wand back inside the pocket of his suit definitely changing his mind about fast travel by Apparating._

 _Suddenly, he felt that walking was suddenly a very much better idea than what he had in mind._

 _Tonight, he was going to give her that she was indeed a bright witch._


	5. Chapter 5

_**Author's Notes:**_ _**I must possibly owe everyone a long note for missing out and being on a very long hiatus, close to a year.**_ _**September last year was the last time I posted on this story and a few months later, on my other stories.**_ _**My dad passed away October 2018 and since then, things at home, life and work were just going up and down like some nonstop orbit and for which I couldn't just adjust bravely and thoroughly. So many things have come and gone since dad passed and I felt that I couldn't brave myself in one place and get my shit together.**_ _**In recent, some other things have happened which I think, may be more than enough than I can handle so I am pushed back into this world where there is solace for my heart - writing, writing stories as I have done so when I was way younger like every other child of the Harry Potter generation.**_ _**It's about 1 in the morning in my time so I'm going to cut this short and I'm hopefully back for good to continuing all my stories I've left behind.**_ _**I've just had some dental extraction today so I'm on leave from work for about three days. There is also a storm in my country so I'm staying in with nothing but some soup and warm tea to keep me company for about three days.**_ ___**Here is one of the final chapters I have been able to edit few weeks back. It may take a little more than a few days to a week for a new chapter after this one.**_ _**If anyone would be willing to beta this story, feel free to recommend and I'd be glad.**_ ___**1.14am on my time so I must be off to bed in a few. We all are getting old. Hopefully this hiatus from life and work that will keep me home for the next few days will get me**_ _**back up my game.**_ _**Lots of love**_  
 _ **xx**_

 ** _III_**

"Getting by." he answered him gently as his eyes settled across the view before them and he took the bottle back into his lips. "I always get by."

Lupin nodded quietly, eyes towards the son of his bestfriend he saw grow from a young lad and into the man that he was today.

Remus Lupin did all that he can to guide him into the life that he had been given by fate and although he tried his best to do whatever he can to help Harry overcome the trials of his life, he always felt that he could have done more for the boy.

He regretted that despite all his efforts, it will always never seem enough and Harry will never be truly happy after the war and what he had lost.

"I know it's not exactly a walk in the park, Harry." Lupin said as he stared next to him outside the house and by the starry night by the gardens. "But you're doing alright and if there is anything you need, you know that the rest of us is just-"

"I know." Harry cut him short taking his eyes from the sky and moving it back to him as he gently tossed the tip of his beer bottle to Lupin's. "I know you and everyone else is just there for me."

He gave his old professor a small smile and returned his gaze back across the sky.

Lupin nodded at him knowing it was the end of their conversation.

Harry had truly change through the years and if he had any emotions, he stopped showing it to any of them.

He had tried to be very strong for a very long time and because of it, he seemed to have forgotten that it was alright to feel from time to time – that it was alright to be hurt, to be angry, to let it all out.

But that was precisely what Lupin felt wrong about what happened to Harry.

The boy had not shed a single tear since they lost Hermione Jean Granger twenty years ago.

Not a single tear had been shed from this boy's eyes and Lupin knew that it was one sign that he was never right again and might never truly be.

"So, did you…" Lupin's voice began again. "Did you accept the vacation leave I heard you were offered for later this year?"

Harry finished his drink silently.

Lupin already knew the answer to his question.

Harry had not taken nor accepted any kind of invitation or vacation from work for the past two decades.

As far as Harry as concerned, Lupin knew that Harry has not left the country nor the town for the past years.

"I don't need a vacation." Harry simply answered him settling the bottle down. "I have too much work on my plate to afford one vacation."

"But Harry, you know that if you ask Kingsley he would-"

"There are cases that are not yet or could never be resolved at the Ministry. There are even laws being built for which I am consulted with. I don't think really I'd need a vacation-"

"Harry-"

"Besides, I am finishing a couple of paperwork from the list of charities from Hermione's old list before.."

Lupin noticed how his voice had slightly changed, trailing off as he began to be lost in his own thoughts.

"Sorry." Harry quickly said clearing his throat and sitting straighter back again. "There are just things to be done and I don't want a vacation to get in the way of finishing far more important things. Are you done?"

Lupin looked up and opened his mouth to say something as Harry picked up his own empty bottle.

He nodded gently at the boy.

Harry took the bottle and gestured he was returning inside the house where everyone else was clearing up the left overs of the dinner party.

He watched as Harry quietly returned inside the house with no trace of emotion back in his face once more.

Lupin looked around him and inhaled sharply.

This was exactly where they had lost Hermione Granger years ago.

He knew that Harry never wanted to leave this place because he was still secretly hoping that one day, she would just show up and come back to him.

Twenty years had passed and not a shed of evidence of life was ever found of Hermione.

And the boy who made sure of that was going to be let out of Azkaban very soon for a pardon and a possible parole to be granted to him by the government of the new regime that Harry had helped built.

He knew that should the young Malfoy be let out, Harry would never truly recover again.

They didn't speak of it but he was sure that it was in Harry's mind – the news that Draco Malfoy was going to be released from Azkaban after serving twenty years in prison.

He was given a double seventy years sentence which was close to a lifetime sentence.

But his record inside Azkaban had been clean and he had been vouched for a parole for this record that he was able to produce through time.

Whether it was because he wanted to be released and given a pardon or it was because he simply gave up with life inside Azkaban they weren't sure.

But it served him well and sooner than everyone would expect, he was going to be let out of the prison.

 _"Do you reckon things will change over the summer?" she asked him as they settled into an outdoor table by a lunch café across town._

 _"Maybe." Draco said as he signaled for the waiter to their table. "Refreshments?"_

 _"Anything that isn't sweet." Hermione answered him as she straightened out her summer dress for their little brunch together. "I've been meaning to tell you something."_

 _"Oh yeah? Hold that thought." Draco said as the waiter neared them and he ordered two iced cold blue mint lemonade for them and then a few of the brunch specialties from the menu. "Sorry, what was that?"_

 _Draco looked back at her and Hermione looked reluctant to talk now._

 _She was biting her lower lip which told Draco that she was afraid or nervous about something._

 _"What's wrong?" he asked, worry in his face as he reached across the table for her. "Something happened?"_

 _Hermione looked back up at him, eyes uncertain._

 _But she sighed heavily and moved across the table towards him so that they were facing one another very closely._

 _"I need to stay with them for the rest of the summer." Hermione told him with a heavy sigh and fear in her eyes. "I won't be seeing you until the term begins."_

 _Draco stared at her, contemplating what she had just told him._

 _It may have sounded like a simple plan but Draco knew what that meant._

 _The Order of the Phoenix as he had come to understand, was preparing for something now that the Dark Lord was out into the open._

 _If Hermione was going to stay with the rest of the Weasleys at their place, he knew that it was for her protection because the Dark Lord and his allies were indeed advancing._

 _Despite that Hermione never openly talked to him about what she knew and she accepted without question that he couldn't divulge to her things that he also knew, they had a mutual understanding that things were happening behind them, behind closed doors and both ends would soon have to come into a decision for which side of the war they were going to stay and stand with._

 _"Draco?" Hermione's small voice came back to interrupt his thoughts._

 _He blinked and looked back at her, she was still biting her lower lip._

 _"I'm fine." Draco said. "Don't worry about it. I guess you should just try as much to enjoy your stay there with them."_

 _He didn't say it unkindly but the hint of jealousy in his voice was very evident that Hermione's worry slightly increased._

 _No, they weren't together as they have both ruled out within themselves._

 _But they both knew that they weren't friends either._

 _They were something else, something else that neither would admit now in fear of being rejected or the realization that they might have been assuming something from one another._

 _Since the first time they started hanging out over the summer, they both knew that there was something between them that remained unspoken._

 _They never met at school, not really._

 _And although he no longer bullied her, he kept his distance so as to keep from suspicious eyes as to why the two of them would ever talk to one another publicly._

 _Hermione understood this arrangement without words._

 _Although it worried her to see him still bullying the rest of the people at school he wanted to tease or that he still did what he wanted to do with Harry at Quidditch, she had remained out of all it and only sent him a dark look from her eyes that meant that she disapproved of everything else he did._

 _He didn't exactly say anything about any of it, but he retreated once Hermione was within the premises and she was likely to not want to see what he was doing._

 _They remained close for some sort of relationship over every summer and winter break._

 _He would cross towns and see Hermione in the Muggle town where she lived because it was the place where they weren't known and there was absolutely no face to recognize who he was._

 _Asking her to be with him at Wizarding World London was as good as a risk for her life._

 _He liked the idea of it – that every summer and winter – they seemed to have a secret place, a secret world that only the two of them knew about._

 _They might not be friends, but they sure were something._

"Harry, I was thinking of going with you to the Ministry within the week." Lupin said as they walked back to the house. "I would like to take a visit and maybe see a couple of people from years back?"

"Yeah, sure." Harry said as they entered the house that was a little quiet now seeing the women were in the kitchens clearing things and the others were already possibly back up their rooms. "I usually leave by seven or eight in the morning but tomorrow I have somewhere to go. The day after I can bring you."

"Yeah, that would be good." Lupin said as Harry led him to the living room. "You won't stay for the night?"

"No." Harry said as his eyes roamed the room. "I don't really sleep here.. "

His voice trailed off and Lupin knew that Harry, as much as possible, avoided staying in the place where Hermione had last been.

He had never healed through time.

"I come and go here but I don't sleep here." Harry said as he put down his empty beer bottle and moved towards the long couch where he had dropped his traveling cloak earlier on. "My house isn't very far anyway."

"Well, alright then. I'll see you the day after tomorrow?" Lupin asked him seeing that Harry looked tired and might want some sleep already. "You won't say goodnight to Molly?"

"She slept earlier on." Harry commented with a smile as he wore his cloak over and patted Lupin over the shoulder. "I'll see you, professor."

"Harry-" Lupin had stopped him from turning away and the boy looked back at him with an exhausted look in his face and weary green eyes. "You do need to get some rest and you need to take good care of yourself."

"I appreciate your concern, professor-" Harry replied nodding at him. "I really-"

"Hermione wouldn't want you to live life this way." Lupin had said and there was something in the way he had mentioned Hermione's name that changed the way Harry had looked at him. "Hermione would surely not want you to-"

"We won't know what Hermione would want or not want anymore, professor." Harry said, his eyes had narrowed and a dark gleam appeared in his eyes before he shoved Lupin's hand off from his shoulders and he moved away from him. "We both know that Malfoy made very sure of that. Did you forget?"

A look of alarm passed Lupin's eyes upon seeing the cold feature that passed Harry's face.

But it had vanished as it had come.

Lupin took a step back as Harry moved away from him, the dark look over his face slowly fading as if he had only been possessed very momentarily and he was back to his old self.

"I didn't forget." Lupin answered him with a curt not. "Nobody will ever forget what happened, Harry."

"That's right." Harry said straightening up. "I will never forget and I hope none of you will ever as well. Goodnight, professor."

And with that, he bid him goodnight and turned away from him, leaving Lupin alone, staring at the exit door of the house.

Lupin nodded at him and took the pillow by the couch that Molly left for him earlier for the room he usually used when he was in town with them.

Lupin's eyes followed him out the front door where he had taken back his shoes and umbrella for the night started to be cold again as he left the house quietly, eyes sad and heart burdened.

And Lupin knew; he knew that his heart was still as heavy as the last time he had seen the boy as it hangs dead around his chest since Hermione's disappearance two decades ago.

 _"It's only about two weeks of summer-"_

 _"Two and a half." Draco corrected her giving her a look before withdrawing himself back from the table and settling back to his own seat. "I don't think that makes any difference anyway. Just go with them and enjoy yourself."_

 _He looked away from her then, eyes settled over the bottle of sparkling water that was placed over their table for the two of them._

 _Hermione stared across him from her spot and knew that he wasn't alright and wasn't alright with what she had just told him._

 _But what was she going to do?_

 _She knew that it was end of discussion and Draco would never raise anything against it._

 _It was an unspoken rule between them – they could go for opinions and suggestions but they would never stop one another from what the other wanted to do and she knew that Draco would not say anything about her decision._

 _After all, despite her reservations about the plan, she knew that she must follow in order to help protect Harry._

 _"We're not exactly staying at the Burrow." Hermione told him as she was told that a different location was going to be the summer place for them but neither of the three of them were told where exactly. "But I'm not sure where we're going."_

 _Draco's eyes lit up at the information she shared._

 _She opened her mouth to say something else but he shook his head._

 _"That's enough information, Hermione." he gently warned her. "It does not matter where you go as long as you're protected with the rest."_

 _She nodded quietly, slightly ashamed of herself from almost saying something about the Order's plan for them._

 _"Is that woman still teaching you how to read minds?" she asked out of curiosity._

 _Draco looked away from her again, eyes deep in thought._

 _"Draco-"_

 _"Yes." Draco answered her with what sounded like a snap at her. "Yes, aunt Bella is still teaching me. And I'm progressing quite fast. My godfather also thinks that I am coming close to an advance level to it."_

 _His voice had turned gentle again and the words made sense to Hermione without explanation._

 _The Dark Lord was preparing him for something and he was in no surprise, good at it._

 _It wasn't a threat he was giving her._

 _It was a silent warning that whatever Harry was learning and doing, he should be doing it fast because if the Dark Lord uses him against the Potter boy, he was surely going to flat out defeat Harry down on his face._

 _"I see." Hermione answered him looking away with a sad look over her eyes. "I should practice more with Harry."_

 _"Practice more with him or not, the idea is that your little bestfriend should be alert and on his feet every damn time. No matter how trained you are, what you must understand Hermione is that the war will come and take you – unless you're prepared and alert. Nobody can train for it – you cannot train to evade death. But you can cheat it if you're prepared."_

 _She was silent again and she knew that he was speaking the way he had been raised and taught but his Death Eater for a father and his friends._

 _Was her mother never concerned of him and the way he was being influenced at the manor?_

 _He looked at her and suddenly, he was concerned with the worry that was growing in her face._

 _This wasn't her problem nor her burden to take – it was his and his alone._

 _"Do you want me to teach you?" he offered out of the blue. "I can teach-"_

 _"We don't want them to see you teaching me anything or giving me anything, Draco." Hermione said with a morose look over her face. "Don't worry, I've been working on it on my own. Professor Lupin can help us out."_

 _Draco nodded coherently at her._

 _Although he looked like he wanted to say something else about it, he had changed his mind and had turned into another smile and changed their topic._

 _"Anyway, are we still going to do what you asked of me?" Draco slowly asked her and this time, Hermione's expression changed again._

 _A momentary look of fear had changed into what looked like determination about something._

 _"Well, yes.." Hermione whispered back at him as if afraid someone else in the low-key café would hear them. "If you're still up to it."_

 _"Ofcourse I am." Draco said with a stark look and glint in his eyes and as he moved back closer to the table, he held her in a gaze and slowly asked her. "Are you still up for it?"_

 _He asked the question back but Hermione felt that it was a dagger through her heart._

 _No, she wasn't up for it._

 _But as in all wars, sacrifices were to be made without a choice, without reservations._

 _"We'll do it on Friday." Hermione simply told him withdrawing herself back from the table._

 _But Draco's hands were fast and he managed to reached for her hands across the table._

 _She looked up at him, afraid f what he was going to say._

 _"I asked you if you're up to it and not when we're going to do it." Draco told her with a serious look about his face. "So, are you sure you're ready for it? Can you actually do it?"_

 _No, she wasn't sure she can do it._

 _That's why she needed Draco with her so that she was going to be forced to do it._

 _After all, Draco Malfoy was good at making people do something that they don't really like._

 _"I think I can-" Hermione began. "I think that-"_

 _"You can't say you 'think' you can, Hermione." Draco truthfully told her. "You have to say that you can and that you're determined to do it. Because if not, then I suggest we don't do it at all."_

 _"Draco, I'm just saying that-"_

 _"Hermione, what we're about to do could possibly – possibly, I tell you – be dangerous enough as it is irreversible. If we plan to do this – if you even plan to really do it – you have to make sure that you're up for it. Either you're up for it or we don't' do it at all. You can't decide to do it now and then when we get there, you're half-hearted and reluctant to do it. Remember what's at stake."_

 _That was the phrase that stuck in her and she knew already that despite that she was determined to do it, she was afraid to do it._

 _"I'll let you in on something." Draco said as he smiled at her trying to assure her that he wasn't going to judge her no matter what. "Snape gave me an advice before on something."_

 _"Go on." Hermione said with a weak smile as she reached back to him over the table and they began to unconsciously hold hands again as they spoke to one another. "What did professor Snape tell you?"_

 _He looked back at her, unsure how she would take the information or what effect it was going to do with her._

 _"Well, he told me simply that if you're afraid to do something, then don't do it at all." Draco whispered to her and although he spoke to her and his eyes were on their hands around one another, he sounded like he was speaking more to himself. "But if you were going to do it, then no matter what, you must not be afraid."_

 _His eyes moved from their hands and back at her where she had been staring right at his eyes._

 _Hermione blushed and blinked away when their eyes met._

 _She carefully sighed and withdrew her hand from Draco's gentle and warm grasp._

 _"I want to do it." Hermione whispered at him. "I need to do it, Draco."_

 _"But you're afraid t do it." Draco whispered back at her looking her straight in the eye. "Remember that if you're going to do it-"_

 _"I must not be afraid." Hermione nodded at him as her eyes met his. "But I am. I really am, Draco."_

 _He looked back at her, contemplating on what to tell her._

 _His heart seemed heavy with the situation she was presenting him but he also knew how burdened she was feeling at that very moment for having the need to decide something that she shouldn't be bearing anyway._

 _"I'll tell you what, if the time comes that you can't do it, I'll do it for you." Draco offered her with a gleam in his eyes._

 _Hermione's eyes widened, her facial expression struggle between delight and fear again._

 _"But Draco-"_

 _"But in return, I will take something of the same favor from you." Draco cut her short in a business like tone which was far different from the tone he had been carrying when he offered himself to do what she had to do._

 _"Take something?" Hermione asked him, slightly perplexed. "I'll do something for you? What is it?"_

 _"A favor I may someday need from you." Draco said extending his hand to her in an agreement. "A favor that may come in handy should the time come that I need help from an inconvenience on my part."_

 _Hermione's eyes narrowed at him._

 _Ofcourse Malfoy would need something in return – he was still a Malfoy and business was business._

 _"If it does not involve me or any of my friends dying, I'll do it." Hermione said taking his hand back but Draco withdraw it from her. "Draco-"_

 _"Promise me you'll do it, whatever it is." Draco challenged her. "I promise that it won't be related to having any of your little bestfriends harmed or whatever it is you fear. I promise that no harm will come to them. But I will want your word that should the time come that I need the same favor from you or something akin to it, you'll do it."_

 _Hermione stared back at him and she couldn't help but think that Draco was meaning to ask her of this from a long time now but didn't have the opportunity to ask her._

 _"Are you in trouble?" her nosy self asked him. "Are you- "_

 _"I'm the one offering help here." Draco said with a smile at her. "Take it or leave it, Granger."_

 _And the glint in his eyes told Hermione that it was a risk he was willing to take for her – and he waited patiently if she was willing to do the same thing for him._

And miles away from them all, inside the cell of Azkaban, a boy who had grown twenty years older in life lay down in his own cell.

His eyes stared dead at the wall opposite his bed.

His thoughts consuming him and he had been up for days and weeks since the news broke out that the Ministry of Magic was granting parole to atleast three Azkaban prisoners.

His case was taken into consideration and he was approved to be paroled.

His Defense Council had visited him a few days ago to tell him that the paper works wasn't going to take very long as the government worked better and faster since the regime of the new world had began.

He was going to be given the freedom that should have been his anyway.

He was going to be freed any day now and he was going to be given a chance to redeem his life.

His eyes had gone deep and weary and all the beautiful glow of its grayish blue colour had vanished into the years.

He had come to accept his fate but the parole that was given to him was enough to shed a little bit of life in his that had felt forsaken by the gods.

If there were any gods and he does get out of Azkaban, he swear that he was going to find justice.

Not for himself – that was something he felt he didn't deserve.

But he was going to find justice for his beloved Hermione.

She had vanished without a trace and he had paid very dearly for it just because he was found at the scene of the crime.

He knew that he could possibly never find her; she was possibly dead a long time ago.

He heard the news and he read the scraps of papers – the Ministry had given up searching for her as she had vanished without a trace.

No one else knew what really happened that night.

He had passed out, he had been weak and the next time he had opened his eyes, he was down and was to be arrested for a crime he knew he didn't commit.

He wished he defended himself better so he could have spent the better of his twenty years in search of her.

He was innocent, he remembers that at the least.

And just like Sirius Black, knowing he was innocent kept him sane within the walls of that dreadful place.

But he was also a Malfoy and at the time of his arrest, any threat do the peace of the world that the Chosen One had given them back was to be eliminated.

He wasn't given a proper trial.

Not when he was a Malfoy and every evidences pointed towards him.

He was a Death Eater, a son of a Death Eater and came from a long blood line of Pureblood Slytherins and a family that openly supported the Dark Lord and hated anyone who wasn't of the Pureblood line.

And he had a long history of vindictive relationship towards the vanished victim – nobody would ever question him for being the culprit for her disappearance.

His history with her was ticket enough to land him his own place at Azkaban.

He wished he remembered more of that night.

He knew something was amiss and something had gone wrong that night.

 _He knew he was innocent._

The truth that he knew that he would never hurt Hermione kept him sane all these years and the reality that something or rather someone had killed her or had abducted her from the world was enough to remind him every day of the love he lost just because what they shared had been forbidden by the world around them.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Author's Note:**_ _**I'm so glad to be able to get out of bed and go back to my routine after getting sick for days. I still feel slightly groggy with all the medicines but i'm just glad that I make more sense now and I can make sense of my surroundings better that i'm up on my feet to resume onto my work and all that.**_ ___**Still stormy and rainy at my end of the world.**_ _**Here is a chapter and the weekend will be full of work so hopefully I am able to fill in my readers while I'm away for full work over the weekend.**_ _**I love your messages and thank you for all the kudos. I will try to answer everyone.**_ ___**Lots of love**_ _**xx**_

 ** _IV_**

 _"I can't stay long." she whispered as she sat at the corner of the café at the end of Diagon Alley where it led and met with the next streets._

 _"I know." Draco answered as he moved the chair and made sure that neither of them were easily visible to the other customers. "I took the liberty of getting one for you."_

 _He pointed over two cups of coffee and a small platter of sandwich for her._

 _This would be a very quick meeting and one both of them knew would be short._

 _The new term was about to begin and he wanted to see her because this was going to be difficult once school resumes._

 _"I thought I'd see you at term already?" Hermione asked him remembering Draco's words a few weeks ago._

 _"There are changes." Draco said in a hushed whisper as if afraid that someone would hear him or rather someone was following him._

 _Hermione noticed how his eyes kept darting around them._

 _"Draco? Is everything-"_

 _"My father's in Azkaban." Draco simply told her. "I'm sure you've heard and read after the whole Ministry fiasco. Hermione, I need you to promise me you'll stay close to Potter and the rest. Things out there are coming from extreme to worse. I can't protect you. I need to focus on protecting my mother right now."_

 _Although that was evident for any child, there was something about the last that he said that made Hermione feel that something else had happened._

 _"Did something happen?" Hermione asked him and though she didn't say anything, she noticed that he had unconsciously shifted his left arm and withdrew it from the table and closer to him as if to keep it secure._

 _Her eyes stayed there for a bit longer but she shook her head, trying to dislodge the thought from her mind._

 _"Draco?"_

 _"The Dark – he advances and he will advance with new allies this year. I can't focus on protecting you at school, you must do that yourself. I'm sorry."_

 _"You don't have to be sorry." Hermione whispered and she reached out for his arms but he kept it hard and on place as if afraid she would touch him. "Draco, look at me."_

 _Hermione stayed staring at him, concerned at his thinning figure and pale face._

 _"Draco." Hermione whispered again. "I'm here for you. You don't need to worry. We've trained for what is to come."_

 _"And so have we." Draco simply told her without meeting his eyes and with nothing but spite and regrets in his voice. "I can't promise you the safety of your friends, I'm sorry."_

 _Hermione stared at him trying to read through him but for some reason, for the first time – he was barring her from his thoughts._

 _Or did she just think so?_

 _She never intentionally wanted to read Draco but this time for some reason, she felt that she was barred from his thoughts either way and she didn't want to give it a try._

 _She didn't want him to think that she didn't trust him._

 _"The government will fall soon." Draco suddenly said as if he was desperate to share any possible information for her to begin with the rest of the Order. "They must prepare."_

 _"Yes, I know." Hermione said. "Cornelius Fudge is to be removed-"_

 _"No." Draco said in a state of irritation as if she had a fault at not being informed well._

 _"What do you mean?"_

 _"The new Minister of Magic they will reinstate will not last long." Draco answered her and all the while she avoided looking her in the eyes as he continued. "Death Eaters are in the Ministry. They are everywhere, Hermione. Your friends there must be very careful. Be careful who you trust. Don't just trust anyone."_

 _Although that was a very serious and obvious statement already, Hermione knew the weight of it as it came from Draco._

 _Both of them knew that it was the trust from where they began – or whatever this was – that was tying them together bringing in information to the other without having to go through the ordeal of telling anyone else where these information came from._

 _Well atleast, that was for Hermione's case._

 _Hermione knew that Draco would never tell a soul of whatever she gave him, well not that he allowed her to give him anything._

 _He was always the first one to stop her from saying anything that he knew may possibly be useful to the Dark Lord and the Death Eaters._

 _She trust him completely and she knew that he did the same way that is why even as risky as it could be, he tried his best to give her something that was important and yet would not raise suspicious to where she got them._

 _"I don't." Hermione answered after a while and this time, she reached for his hand and Draco slowly opened his palm to hold hers._

 _They remained like this for a few seconds, Draco's eyes outside the window view while Hermione's focused on their table while both hands remained holding one another._

 _Even if neither said anything, they knew whatever 'this was' it wasn't going to go anywhere until the war was over or atleast, until they survive it._

 _'This' was an unspoken word or feelings from them but they both knew that it existed somewhere and because of so many fears and possibilities, they both refused to say anything._

 _It was beautiful enough this way and neither wanted it to end for as long as it could exist._

 _They looked the other way, holding one another's hands as if they were some doomed lovers or atleast, until the war was over and they both, survive it._

 _"But I trust you, Draco." Hermione whispered only enough for Draco to hear her. "I need you to know that. I will trust you with my life."_

 _He didn't say anything, he didn't confirm that she felt that way towards her._

 _But Hermione felt, for the briefest moment, that his fingers pressed gently firmer after she said those words as if it was his way of confirming and giving her the same answer he couldn't give her back._

"We need atleast one representative from his side before this commences and becomes official." One of the wizard of the Wizengamot stated as he read through a long parchment.

It was Draco Malfoy's order of release.

"This boy is close to what an orphan is already." another wizard with a green scarf around his neck had stated. "What I'm interested to know is if he will still have access to all his family's accounts? Wealth and all that? After all, he is an only heir."

"He will have access, that is definite." answered the eldest among the room in an authoritative voice. "But that will come in due time. It is his birthright and no law can possibly break that whether he is a convict or not."

There was some silence around the room as each read several parchments, parts of files of the case for which Draco Malfoy was brought in to Azkaban and sentenced for, two decades ago.

"The boy is of age, he will indeed gain what is his. His part of the Black family wealth will take more time for him to gain access but that does not even matter. As in the Malfoy wealth alone which he can gain immediately by law, he can live with more than seven more lifetimes."

"I don't think the boy is considering which wealth to take hold first." said the only witch in the room. "I think he is only and will only be interested that he is given his freedom."

"He has been well-behaved in the time he served in Azkaban. Very unlike his – shall we call them friends and family? His father wasn't as quiet nor as lenient as he was in the time he was in Azkaban."

"I visited the boy twice." the eldest said. "The first time was two weeks after he was brought in and though he was quiet, there was life in his eyes. The second time I visited him was when I brought news that Narcissa Black Malfoy, his beloved mother, passed away. The fire of life left his eyes. And the last I have heard, he was as quiet as the dead in his Azkaban cell."

"Anyone convicted for murder with no trial will feel the same way. We must admit that we threw the boy in Azkaban without proper trial."

"He was found guilty!" said a younger wizard at the end of the room. "And it was Harry Potter's fiancé whom he has murdered."

"Old school grudges are not reliable and factual evidences to rob a boy of his life." the eldest wizard said. "Have I been head at the time of this council, this would have been given a proper and closer inspection. But there is no point dwelling on spilled milk. The boy has been convicted and sentenced and now, we focus upon his release."

There was a long silence in the room at the moment as things were considered and read through.

The law passed was that anyone who had showed good behavior and progress of morals inside Azkaban was to be released as long as they have served more than ten years of the time parted to them.

Draco Malfoy had served two decades of the seven lifetimes sentenced of him with no record of misconduct inside the prison.

For someone convicted of murder, he was indeed unusually quiet and docile.

Did he regret so deeply what crime he had done?

"Twenty years and absolute no misconduct?" asked the other elder wizard. "Is this the behavior of a guilty man? Are we sure we convicted the right person?"

"When I first visited him," said the head of the Wizengamot. "He asked me only one thing and the only thing he has ever asked me – if we have news of Miss Hermione Granger. I told him none and that she is of no concern of his any longer. I never heard anything from him again. At the time, I thought that his first stay in Azkaban was too much for someone as young as he is – to have a good life and then be exposed to such darkness. I brushed it away – perhaps out of haste and out of the idea that we were convicting Death Eaters after another every week at the time – we were victorious at the Ministry. But now as I look back…. Maybe I should have contemplated more from his question."

Another long silence as their unwarranted and unspoken thought reflected and echoed upon one another's eyes.

"When will he be released?" asked the witch from the table.

"Possibly in two weeks' time to a month. We are only waiting for several documents but today, we all sign this right here to state that we are all allowing the release of Draco Malfoy."

"I think two decades is more than enough to serve such crime." a wizard had spoken as he reached over for quills around the table. "It is a unanimous agreement then in this room that we allow this new law to take effect for this boy's case and allow him to be released?"

There were murmurs of agreement.

"I think we had made enough unwarranted decisions. We have thrown him in there without proper procedure and we must admit it is not just for the crime he had committed but because he was the son of a Death Eater.. "

The witch made nodded in deep agreement as if she had been harboring this fact for the longest time.

"We made the boy pay for more than the crime he had been convicted for." she had echoed what each of them were thinking at the moment.

Each wore a guilty face but nobody spoke a word of disagreement.

The head of the table looked around him and reached over for a parchment and asked to be handed the official document.

"Then let's begin." he had said as the parchment was given to him, looking over to where he was supposed to sign – one out of twelve signatures. "And each of us too, will someday pay...for there is no crime ever left unpunished."

An element of varied colour ignited at each of the special quill that each member held as they carefully signed their names at the end of each parchment.

 _"What the hell was that?" Draco asked her as he let her pull her into an empty classroom. "Granger you know you can't just-"_

 _It was almost midnight and they had arrived back at Hogwarts several hours ago._

 _And right after the dinner feast, Hermione had sent him her Patronus to tell him to meet him by the staircase at the seventh floor._

 _"You attacked Harry!" Hermione angrily told him locking the door behind her and pulling her wand out to his throat. "Why?"_

 _Draco stared at her._

 _It wasn't his plan to attack Harry._

 _What happened in the train, well just happened._

 _Out of anger and spite perhaps?_

 _But it wasn't his intention but he had the chance and he took it._

 _He looked back at Hermione and she was fuming in anger._

 _"'Mione.." he tried to reason with a gentler voice trying to reach for her but she quickly moved away and swayed his hand away from her. "Listen, I bet he didn't tell you the whole story-"_

 _"What?" Hermione whispered back at him as he raised both hands to show her surrender. "I can't believe you did that. Draco, he's my bestfriend-"_

 _"And he was getting in my way!" Draco reasoned to her his face turning red in apprehension. "He was spying on me in that compartment!"_

 _"He was- what? What do you mean he was spying on you?"_

 _"Did he leave that part from his side of the story?" Draco mocked her and Hermione suddenly realized that Draco had a point. "Did he tell you why he was left behind in that train when you were always together all these years getting on and off it?"_

 _Hermione gritted her teeth as the thought made more sense the more she dwelled on it._

 _She breathed heavily and lowered her wand from Draco's throat._

 _Draco could see her eyes move sideways, her brain now moving faster than her reflex and her emotions._

 _He could see her battle with her emotions that what he was saying made sense and that Harry was spying on him._

 _"We should go back to our dormitories, Hermione." Draco offered her as he lowered his hands as well. "It's our first day back tomorrow, we should all be well rested."_

 _He moved to her, gently reaching for her hand as she pocketed her wand back now._

 _She moved to him and looked up at his gentle eyes._

 _"You will always tell me the truth, right?" Hermione whispered as he placed his long arms around her. "You will never lie to me?"_

 _Draco looked at her and nodded._

 _He pulled her closer and kissed her forehead wanting nothing but to keep her in his embrace for a long time._

 _Her scent, her touch gave him peace and comfort and he wished never to be parted from this feeling._

 _"I will never lie to you." Draco told her. "I've never kept a secret from you and I never would. I'm a lot of things but I am not a liar."_

 _Hermione stared hard at him knowing he was telling the truth and that it was a promise she could hold onto especially in the dark days that was looming ahead of them._


	7. Chapter 7

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p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"emstrong /strong/em/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"emstrongA new chapter!/strong/em/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"emstrongI would like to point out that this work is WIP. I was wondering if there is anywhere in my story settings that it says complete or finished so I can correct it immediately as I am being bluntly attacked behind private messaging that I stated it's complete whilst it isn't yet./strong/em/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"emstrongHelp please so I can correct it./strong/em/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"emstrongOther than, here is a short chapter./strong/em/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"emstrongLovely evening everyone!/strong/em/p  
/blockquote  
/div  
/div  
div class="userstuff module" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 1088.63px; float: none; word-wrap: break-word; color: #2a2a2a;" role="article"  
h3 id="work" class="landmark heading" style="border-width: 0px 0px 0.25em; border-image: initial; outline: 0px; font-weight: 500; font-style: inherit; font-size: 0px; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0.125em; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; height: 0px; clear: both; color: transparent; border-color: initial initial #333333 initial; border-style: initial initial double initial;"Chapter Text/h3  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" align="center"strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"V/span/strong/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" align="center" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Even if she didn't say anything, Draco knew that Hermione had been keeping a closer watch on him since they arrived back at Hogwarts../span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Whether it was because of Harry's constant nagging that 'he was up to something' or because she was worried about him than ever, he could no longer distinguish./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"But he had more pressing matters to tend to./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"The idea that his parents were somewhere 'held captive' at their own home whilst they await for him to complete 'his mission' this year was at the top of his list./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"It was nearly three in the morning and he was still tossing and turning in his bed in their dormitory./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"His Dark Mark was hurting every once in a while./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"As ironic as it sounds, he couldn't help but think if this was how Harry Potter feels whenever his scar hurt because 'The Dark Lord' was rather 'feeling' something extreme or was about to call and summon his 'friends'./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"He knew things would eventually end this way but he didn't expect it to escalate quickly./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"And now that school was back, seeing Hermione more often as they encounter one another at school would surely end him in the inevitable event that he has to show her or that she would see that he had truly been marked by the Dark Lord as one of his./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"What was he going to do?/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"What would she say?/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Would her logical mind find a way to accept this reality or would she finally take her stand I the unspoken decision on which side to go with?/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"He was about to lose her./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"But if he doesn't abide with the Dark Lord, he would kill his mother first./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"What was he to do?/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"He didn't have any choice./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"He doesn't have any choice./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Was this really what each Death Eater felt?/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Draco turned again, closing his eyes in disgust./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Now he was 'one of them' and to be called a Death Eater disgusted him beyond his comprehension./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"He used to admire them./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Used to was the word until he saw what they did, what they were truly capable of./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"His aunt Bellatrix was the forefront of the Dark Lord's allies and was the one who had been egging him to join from the beginning./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"She calls it the offer of the Black and Malfoy family together in the service of the Dark Lord./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"He was an offering to the Dark Lord./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"It used to give him feel the glory, being able to make his parents – his father in particular – very proud./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"But when true blood shed came to the light, he didn't know how he grew up thinking this was 'honor for the Malfoy' family./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"He didn't have a way out, he simply didn't have a choice./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"And he was going to lose her forever./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""No, Ron." Hermione snapped. "I'm not going to help you with that assignment."/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""But Snape-"/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Professor Snape-" she angrily corrected him, "-gave that for a good reason. Make your own research." Hermione cut him short eyeing him angrily over the Potions book as they searched for ingredients for today's potion./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"The days had turned in quickly and before they knew it, they were already flooded with various of works, readings and projects and activities for school./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"But today was slightly different – Double Potions with the Slytherins – to compete for a particular potion that their new and eccentric potions professor had come up for them to make./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"And in the weeks that had been, Harry – for some bloody reason – was becoming atop the class for all their potions activities./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""I thought you've turned that book in?" Hermione whispered as she saw Harry pull the old and tattered book out to begin making the potion. "You should turn that in and if you don't-"/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""If you ever tell a soul about that goddamn book Hermione-" Ron said through gritted teeth. "It's our only chance to study potions!"/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Quiet you two!" Harry warned as professor Slughorn began walking around the class to give tips and advises and ofcourse, to give slight praise for his new favourite student, Harry Potter./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"He had been telling classes and teachers alike how very talented he was at Potions just like his mother./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"He never took glory in that because everyone knew, especially their more vindictive than ever ex-Potions professor, knew how much of a scam that fact was./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"But neither did he correct professor Slughorn./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"He had a special mission to gain Horrace Slughorn's trust and if lying to him about his abilities to create the simplest to most complex concoctions was the way, then he would do it./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"The headmaster had specifically told him that it was his trust he must gain first before they could go on their mission in completing the secret into finding out how to defeat Voldemort and he wasn't going to pass up for that chance./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Fuck."/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Hermione's eyes shot up around the classroom at the familiar voice that uttered the curse word./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Draco was just a table or two across from them and he had accidentally spilled a small bottle of ingredient./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"She discreetly kept watching him trying to figure out what was happening in his table./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"His table – he wasn't sharing with neither Crabbe nor Goyle – he was alone, yet again./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"She wasn't sure if it was just her but she had been noticing that even with his fellow Slytherins, Draco was keeping himself apart from./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"She kept her eye on him, hoping he would look up at her and tell her that he as fine and that it was a small accident./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"But he didn't look up at her and he kept reworking on the first potion again./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Draco tried his best to keep his head down and refocus on the potion again knowing Hermione had heard him and was surely expecting him to look up at her to signal her that he was fine./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"But he wasn't fine./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"He agitatedly pulled his school uniform sleeve further down despite the heat in the classroom as people began brewing in their cauldrons./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"His Dark Mark had just felt a hot-gash kind of pain and he knew that something must be happening at the Malfoy manor and he could only hope his mother was well./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"His mind couldn't focus./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"He knew Hermione was watching her across the room and knew that Potter has something this year that was helping him become the best of this class when everyone else knew that he was one of the worse next to Neville Longbottom./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"The only thing he knew at the moment was that he must be able to create this potion because it will help him accomplish entirely what he had been working on in that Room of Requirement and he would do whatever it has to take to make the required potions in perfect shape to gain that goddamn liquid luck./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""How's my favourite student?" greeted Lupin's ever cheerful voice as Harry opened the door with an awestruck look over his face./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"He stood by the doorway, completely still upon seeing the familiar and friendly face he knew too well./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Well aren't you going to let me in?" Lupin asked as he pushed himself inside the small house./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I'm sorry, come in – come in-" Harry said, quickly recovering and embracing his old professor. "I didn't expect visitor any time soon, I apologize-"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Well I sent you an owl the other that I'll be dropping by to go with you to the Ministry, remember?" Lupin said as he handed Harry a fresh bag of bagels. "Breakfast?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Yeah, well I don't really eat – well, alright, thanks-" Harry weakly smiled at him as he let his old professor in./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Lupin immediately noticed the evident dark circles around Harry's eyes and for his age, he looked like his age was catching up with him faster than it should./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Something struck in his chest and Lupin had wished that fate had been kinder to the boy./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"But no matter, now that he was back in town, he promised his fellow Order members that he would take better care of Harry this time around – especially and specifically because of the pending case release of Draco Malfoy that will surely affect Harry./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"If he was surprised or distraught at having an unannounced guest, Harry had quickly shoved all thoughts aside, composing himself at best he could./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"He liked seeing Remus Lupin – he was the only person that gave him that kind of comfort that things was going to be better whenever he was around./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"After all, Lupin usually had all the answers he needed./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""How is my favourite Auror these days?" Lupin smiled as he closed the creaking door behind him, trying not to make any comment about the house./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"It was definitely not the house he remembered it to be at his first visit many years ago./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"It was this house that Harry and Hermione had planned to settle down after they got married, this was the love nest that never came to be./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I'll get you some coffee, hold on." Harry said, gushing a little red out of embarrassment for having a sudden guest with his house in that condition./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Lupin slowly followed Harry, quietly observing the state of the household./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Harry had do push and gently kick aside several books, chairs, clothes and empty bottle of liquors aside that were all over the small house./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Pieces of his reference books were everywhere, dirty dishes were also left around the small living room area./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Have a seat, feel at home." Harry hurriedly said gathering a large pile of dirty and newly washed clothes from the small and dingy looking couch. "Sorry, I forgot about these the other day."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Lupin brushed it off and smiled at him, telling him not to worry as it was just him anyway./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Harry disappeared to the other room with the pile of clothes he gathered and Lupin could hear him stashing it instead in another spot of the house while calling him over if he wanted something to eat with the bagel./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I'm fine, I'm fine." Lupin simply called back as he tried to find a suitable spot to sit over the couch area where there were two shattered glasses by the wine-stained old carpet./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Harry was obviously living a routinary lifestyle composed of waking up, going to work, getting back home and drank and that was it./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Harry seemed to have abandoned the idea that in order to live, he had to live a life that was actually fit for living./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"With much disdain and regret, Lupin saw how the house resembled old Grimmauld Place at the time they had used it as headquarters for the Order./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"He heard Harry rush back to the small kitchen and so he stood up again and went to the small kitchen./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"He watched as Harry tossed dishes after another at the already filled sink to make small space over the kitchen table to make coffee for Lupin./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I can do that." Lupin offered seeing how distressed Harry seemed to be as he tossed what looked like an old mug, a teaspoon and an almost empty coffee canister at the side of the table to make one for Lupin. "You can prepare for work, Harry."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Are you sure?" Harry said as he tried to look for a clean plate for Lupin to eat the bagel. "I might have some ham in here somewhere and cheese, hold on-"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Harry, I'm good." Lupin said clearing his throat and gently taking the bag of bagel from the boy. "We can get more breakfast when we get to the Ministry."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Harry looked back up at him with a heavy sigh and for the first time, Lupin saw that he no longer resembled James nor Lily but rather, a younger version of Sirius – ragged, pale faced and wasted by the years./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I'll wait for you here." Lupin said with a smile. "You go get ready for work."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I'm sorry." Harry said in a small voice. "I just – I haven't seen anyone as often and I haven't really got visitors and-"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""It's okay, it's alright, my boy." Lupin said giving him a gentle pat on the back. "We can talk all about it on the way to the Ministry. But now, you get ready."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Harry's eyes brightened a little at his words and Lupin knew he was really the one that the boy needed at that point of his life./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Sorry about the mess." Harry apologetically said knowing that Lupin's eyes were quietly watching his surroundings. "I have too much work and I usually come in late and at the weekends I have some errands to do I barely have time-"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""It's fine, it's fine Harry." Lupin had kindly told him as he found a spot to squeeze himself in the kitchen that smelled like something had burnt some days or weeks ago. "I could actually come over to the weekend and maybe ask Ginny and Molly to help-"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""No!" Harry had sharply said making Lupin look at him, slightly surprise. "I mean-"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""They haven't been here?" Lupin inquired to Harry, trying to avoid looking at his tattered old robes that he was wearing./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"It reminded him a lot of the lowest days he had when he was no war hero, jobless and a lone wolf./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""No." Harry repeated, a little gently this time. "They haven't… not for a few weeks. And I really feel.. feel embarassed if Mrs. Weasley would see all these."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Lupin nodded quietly, taking note of the type of privacy they mentioned Harry had become accustomed with./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I understand." Lupin simply told him with a curt nod. "Then by all means, I can help you if you ever need-"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I'll tell you when I need your help." Harry simply cut short. "I'm sorry, I need to get my things so we can leave."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Sure. Take your time, Harry." Lupin simply said, engaging him with a gentle smile. "Whatever it is you need, Harry." /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Harry looked back at him and Lupin already knew that the boy's heart was aching at those words./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Right…" Harry said after a moment of being speechless. "I'm just going to… going for… upstairs. My things.." and then he disappeared from view while Lupin continued touring himself around the small house./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Harry, I'd like to see your small office." Lupin called up after a while as he continued examining the small cracks over the walls and floors of the house./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Second door with the hallway." Harry's voice responded. "I'm almost done."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Lupin continued to quietly stress to himself Harry's condition of living./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"He heard news from Molly's letters how Harry had gone from bad to worse through the years but he had never actually imagined that this was how bad things had actually gone./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Despite the unfortunate fate life had given Harry, Lupin never expected it to be this bad for the boy who had so much potential and who deserved so much more in life after all the things he had been through./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"He continued to walk around the old house, noticing that upon closer inspection, the stench that was left by the empty bottles of liquor were everywhere./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"He was told that Harry drank from time to time but he never thought that he was a potential heavy drinker./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"What would James and Sirius say if they knew what was happening with Harry?/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Was it too late to save the boy now from what he has become?/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Lupin's thoughts were interrupted as he flinched upon stepping several stack of albums over the floor. /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"He looked down and saw several open albums from Hogwarts days and a stash of photographs was left over the dingy couch./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"He moved to it and picked the stack of old photographs only to find that it were several photos of Harry and Hermione from Hogwarts, some from previous occasions at the Burrow or Grimmauld Place and there were about three at possibly some Muggle café in London./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"At the back of each photograph was a date, a year and the place it had been taken./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"And judging by the old blotted ink handwriting, it was Hermione's./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"He had taught them many years back, but he would definitely not forget how small, thin and neat Hermione's handwritings were./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Harry had kept most of the memorabilias that Hermione had carefully and intricately collected for them both./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Lupin breathed heavily, trying to hold back the tears that were starting to form in his eyes at the love that had been lost and the good life the two almost had./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I'll be there in a minute!" Harry's voice called him back to reality and he heard him dashing from the second floor, possibly running for his clothes and bags in a hurry./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Lupin moved forward from the living room, returning the photos and album back neatly by the end table with the other scattered books and continued his inspection of the house. /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"There were also some signs of small creaks and cracks around the house that pointed out that if there were stormy nights, water surely leaked through the house./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"He didn't want to continue touring the house out of disdain, but he wanted to see the full view and condition for which Harry had settled on living so he would know how to eventually help him./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Finally he reached the small hallway that Harry pointed out where his office was./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"There were three doors and though he already pointed which door was his office, Lupin still tried opening the other doors./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"He opened the first one and by mistake, it was a mere broom cupboard. Materials immediately fell out from it the moment he opened the door and he could swear that there were two large rats that jumped and escaped from the room./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Lupin quickly closed the door, breathing heavily out of surprised at one jumped out of the first door./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"He looked over at the two other doors – one door was larger than the other which was most likely Harry's office while the other was probably the room Molly mentioned before that was made to be a baby's room./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"He felt that he didn't want to see the latter./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"He continued on to open his office door when he heard a sudden scratch./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"He looked around him and could hear the continues creaking coming from either the floorboard or the walls./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" It sounded like there was water leaking somewhere around the house that Harry didn't realize./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Harry?" Lupin called about and before he knew it, a flash of light came and he fell back on the floor as something large jumped out of the darkened hallway and made to move and attack him./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Lupin drew out his wand out of reflex but when he opened his eyes, Harry was standing over him, wand out and was looking strangely down at him./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""What's going on?" he asked with a funny look over his face as he lowered his wand and helped Lupin up to his feet./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Bloody hell, what was that." Lupin commented, breathing hard as Harry stared at him with an insulting smile over his face./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"But insulting as it may be, it was still a smile – a rare feat from the boy these days./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""That's my owl." Harry pointed out as Lupin heard it hurl and fly away from the small hallway. "He likes it down here because it's cold and it's near my office where I usually need him. You alright?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Lupin lied knowing his back hurt a little as he fell down, after all he wasn't as young as he used to be. "Are we going?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Yes." Harry said as he began moving his wand around the house the clear and lock some things. "For good measure. I don't have much neighbors around here to help incase there are burglars."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I see." Lupin said as they made their progress around and out of the house, Harry explaining to him more of his daily routine which was composed closely of well, nothing much./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"As they left the house, Lupin couldn't help but feel burdened with what he had encountered that morning./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"This was the life that Harry Potter had settled into just because the life he had hoped and almost achieved had not happened./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"He didn't seem as sad anymore at the time that he lost Hermione but neither did he look ever happy like he had actually moved on./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Harry seemed to have stayed at the same place he had been many years back at the time he lost Hermione and had never moved forward like the rest of them and yet never ceased to hope that someday he would find Hermione again./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /span/p  
/div 


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